I am not sure how to write this one up. Spoke to the witness and before we started the interview he said “I have the creepiest paranormal encounter you have probably ever heard….30 min later I said “You were right, that was the creepiest thing I have ever heard.”

a listener writes “Hello Wes, I have listened to your show for a couple years now and was curious if you are still doing them. I have had some very strange encounters starting when I was a Senior in High School in 1989. I am now in Western North Carolina and after 4 years of a quiet life, I am now having encounters with creatures in the Smoky Mountains and my home here that sits atop a Mountain just outside the Cherokee Indian Reservation.

I would love to discuss some of these events with you and possibly share some of my stories on your show if possible. Please let me know if you are interested. I do have some pics and Audio of some of my encounters as well.”

Kris writes " In early January I decided to head to RMNP west of Estes Park to hike up and snowboard down an old ski hill there. This is something I've done many times on my own and often there are others doing the same. Although I think it's a bit more rare to go at night, you'll still see folks up there hitting a line a night with head lamps and lights. This time I decided to go at night on my own. I did tell 3 friends where I was going and actually texted one friend a starry Pic from the trailhead. The trailhead lot was empty as we're the ranger stations on the way in.

So, at this point I headed up the hill. It usually takes about an hour depending on snow conditions. I had a snowboard, a backpack with snacks and a Bluetooth speaker. I typically opt out of using snowshoes because Ive got to carry them down as well. I threw on the whole Sabbath paranoid album to get my head straight and motivated. The hill is a limited number of runs with low angles so there is really no avalanche danger.

A week prior, I did the exact same thing. A night hike and boarded down. So, I was confident and enjoying the solace. Even over the sabbath, I could here the wind moving tall trees and flakes hitting the ground. The trail isn't challenging going up and the terrain opens and closes with the trees in the background. About 45 minutes in, I am at the point where the hill opens up and is peppered with trees in the ski slope. The sides are surrounded by darkness due to the trees around. My speaker suddenly says "low battery". I kept walking to the top where the hill funnels you into a narrow trail between more trees. ( i had my phone, so i could point this part out on Google maps) Right then, I decide to reach back and turn off the speaker so I don't have to hear the low battery alert. I continue up this narrow trail for about 80 yards, just short of thr length of a football field. Only hearing the flakes landing, wind, and my crunchy boot prints, out of nowhere came the loudest BARK, with a roaring echo, I've ever heard.

At this point, I froze. My whole body went into shock. I went from nice n warm because of all the movement to cold as ice. I lost feeling in my lips. I didn't know what to do, or say or.... So I did what I've done on a couple occasions. I channeled my inner Phil Anselmo and ripped the biggest scream I could. I yelled HEY! With everything I had. I wanted to Guage where this noise came from so I yelled. After, I sat down shaking. About 15 heartbeats later, BARK! At that moment I knew it was in the trees down from me. Silence in-between these barks so I know it wasn't moving. I got into my bag and took out 3 lights I use for night biking. All of which are at least 1000 lumens. I pointed one up the trail, one down the trail, and one right in front of me into the trees.

I listened and heard nothing. I'm thinking, did I imagine this? So I go HEY one more time. Sure enough, about 10- 15 heartbeats later, BARK. I almost started crying as I strapped my snowboard faster than I ever could have otherwise. I'm freaking out in silence as I think I'm about to board into this sound by heading down. As I'm thinking all of this, I've gotten ready and am about to stand up. This is where in the trees ahead of me, a crazy loud laughing started. Hat ha ha ha haha. It echoes as if there are multiple somethings laughing at me. Like a mad joker.

I flipped at that point. Mentally freaked out. I was having trouble standing up because my hands were sinking into the snow. I quickly found a way and headed down faster than I would have in the day! I didn't sleep gor two nights, and still have trouble doing so.

Thx for reading Wes. I was shaking and having a hard time writing this."

We will also be speaking to Augustus, he writes "My uncle just died and he told we to tell you about all of are interesting stories and the crazy we saw while hunting and horseback riding." Augustus is from Utah and shares strange encounters near his families property.

Jackalynn writes "I've been listening to your show for a few months now, I know you mainly do Sasquatch encounters but after listening to Travis Walton fire in the sky I feel like it's time to share my encounter with a group of aliens I had in 2011. I'd like to share with you if you're interested In hearing it."

We will also be speaking to Eric. Eric is from New York, he writes "My daughter may have seen a Bigfoot. Back in January my daughter wanted to go on a walk after dinner. She wanted to walk down to the water not far from our house. I reluctantly agreed. The reason I was reluctant was up to that point I’ve had a few experiences that led me to believe Sasquatch may live in or travel through this area. These experiences ultimately are what led me to discover your show. So my daughter and I along with my small dog headed out on our walk.

My daughter and I wore headlamps to light our way. The road to the water is unlit and travels through a protected wetland that dead ends at the river. The first thing that happened that in hindsight was a red flag was my dog did not want to walk down that road. Several times she stopped and tried to pull back. About 3/4 of the way down there was a tire track in the dirt road that had frozen over. My seven year old could not resist immediately jumping on the ice. It made a loud hollow crumble noise as the ice exploded beneath her feet. Almost immediately after she did this there was a very heavy thud on the ground off to the left about 50 feet into the woods. I immediately stopped my daughter from making noise and listened for about 45 seconds or so. I heard nothing. We continued on. We reached the water turned around and started to head back without incident. We made it about 90% back to the end of the road when we came upon another frozen tire track that apparently my daughter had overlooked on the way down. Curious, I asked my daughter to jump on the ice like she did the first time. She did so and this time almost immediately after the ice broke, off to the left of the road (the opposite side as the first time) there were strange somewhat high pitched whoops that were crossed with a chatter at the end that went on for several seconds.

I could tell there were two noises coming from the same area in the woods because the vocals would overlap at times. We froze immediately. We stood still for several minutes after these strange noises were heard. During this time I was slowly panning my headlamp all around looking to see if I could see anything. As I was looking back down the trail towards the water my daughter suddenly ran into me from behind and latched onto to me. As she did this she said “daddy a man! There’s a man up there!” I asked her where. She pointed in the opposite direction (the way we were headed) and said he crossed the road up there. I kept searching that area up ahead but I couldn’t see anything. We cautiously continued on. She let me know where she saw the man cross the road as we approached the area. There was no evidence of anything having crossed there. We stood there for a few minutes to look and listen. Nothing was observed.

Back at the house I asked her what the man looked like. All she could describe was that he was big and black and that it walked across the road up in front of us and she could tell it was looking at us. We went for a walk a few days later down the same road at about the same time with no issue. My dog didn’t pull away like she did the first time. That was the most recent experience I’ve had out of several here in Putnam County New York. The first one was in 2020. I feel like this message is already long so I won’t go into the earlier experiences."

There are many questions about what happened to episode 1000. A listener is going to help me release it.

Mac has agreed to come on the show. He had a very recent encounter in PA. There is a lot more to this encounter but Mac describes this area where he hunts and multiple strange events took place that led up to his sighting. Mac said “I only saw one but I am sure there was two of them.

Mac writes “I was out hunting squirrel and raccoon, and I experienced a wood knock, the creature following me, seeing it move through my spotlight, and then catching it’s face looking at me from behind a tree.

It was at least seven feet tall, had a gray haired face with sunken in eyes, big brow ridge, and blocky chin. The hair was thin around the face but covered the mouth and cheek area as if it was an old man’s beard. It did not have a cone shaped head, more round like a person.

I saw it’s face, a little bit of it’s neck, and a bit of its dark shoulders before it pulled away quickly behind the tree. As I moved away it followed me, to which I then decided to push through thorns to get back into the creek and across it to get back to the road.”

Ernest writes "This encounter takes place in 2001 in Ottawa County, Oklahoma. I was 16 years old. I am 40 now. My three younger sisters and I were coming back from visiting our baby cousin who was recently born. It was about 10 pm driving down the road and headed back home.

We see a figure walking down the side of the road, just casually. I mentioned to my sister in the front seat it was awful late to be walking down a dark road without any type of lights. I slow down as I come up behind him. He stood about 9 to 10 feet tall with almost a dark fur coat.

He slowly turned his head, and he had the evilest yellow eyes I have ever seen. By this time, my younger sisters are in the back seat screaming and crying, saying don't stop Ernie. I proceed to lock the doors and speed off. To this day we all have the same story. My sister's age at the time is 15 8 6."

We will also be speaking to Sara. Sara writes “I was driving in Kansas somewhere just a few miles from Norton. It was about 730 in the morning, the sky was clear blue, no wind, just cold. Out of the blue I felt something hit the back end of my car. It hit me hard enough to look in my rear view mirror…I saw nothing.

Then I looked in the Sideview mirror and saw something that looked to be about the size of a small pony or large dog…running across the road. The fields were empty, just fences and fields getting ready to be planted. I got a clear view of it. It had long flowing brown and white hair, like what you would see on an Afghan hound.

On the whole body, my brain immediately thought I should stop because I assumed it was a dog. In the middle of nowhere then I saw where the head should be and my brain couldn’t compute at all, because it was a human face looking right at me as it ran across the road.

I do not understand what I saw but the vision is clear in my head two weeks later….my son thinks it was a skin walker, or dog man…but I don’t really believe in that so I am not sure what to think…I am just curious if there have been any other similar sightings in the area or if I saw something that I just can’t explain. I would love your opinion.”

I will be welcoming Ron to the show. He had an encounter back in the early 1990's. Ron said "We were on vacation, staying in this cabin in U.P. Michigan. The family was down swimming and fishing. I came back to the cabin and I thought someone was in there. I got to the room I thought an intruder or a thief was in there but something told me not to go in there.

Sasquatch never crossed my mind.

As I grabbed my shotgun it ran out. I followed it out but lost sight of it. As I walked into the forest looking, the intruder got up and ran for the water and jumped in. It wasn't human, it reminded me of non human primate. I never saw it come up for air, it could have swam around the bay in an area I could not see. It was the strangest thing that ever happened to me."

Rick writes "When I was younger I lived in Mississippi in a very little town called Poplar Creek. Its very remote and there is nothing there but open farm land. I now live in Asheville, NC I sometimes go back to MS to see family from time to time.

When I do go back I always drive past where I use to live and where I first saw a creature. My family had about 80 acres of land most of it was woodland and swamp area. I never saw the creature until I was older at the age of 15. All of my life my Grandfather use to tell me and my brothers about a wild man and woman that lived in the area and was known to have been living in the area many years. I do know that land we had was very old my Grandfathers Grandparents owned the land and it was passed on over the years. If there were any activity going on over the years when I was younger I had no knowledge of any happenings. Everything changed the summer I turned 13.

It was late June and summer vacation was in full effect. Living in this area everyone has a garden of some type. My family's garden was kind of big because we grew most of our food along with hunting. My Mom and Dad went out of town for a the weekend to visit some of my Dads family. During this time I staid at my Uncles house who also lived on the land we had. That Monday afternoon when my Dad came back home he took a walk in the garden and some plants were torn out of the ground and watermelons were busted open and just left in place but were eaten.

Other veggies were also picked and parts were on the ground not fully eaten also. My Dad was pissed! He called me and my Cousins over to the garden and questioned us about it. We told him no it was not us and that we did not do any of this. My Grandfather saw my Dad getting on to us about this so he came over and saw everything that had happen. I will never forget my Granddaddy face as he said " It was not the kids. I know who did this". My Granddaddy told us kids to go play as he explained to my Dad about what had happen. My mom and Uncle grew up on the land so I believe they knew but refused to say anything. Come to find out years before my Granddaddy had problems with the wild man and wild woman getting into his chicken coop until it got to the point he quit raising chickens. My Mom and Dad got married when i was 4 or 5 so he missed out on that time and had no idea that even happened.

After my Dad heard the story he was in shock but did not believe it until the next morning when more watermelons and other fruits were completely gone. Our two apple trees were picked bare and branches were broken along with our peach trees with peaches that were half eaten or were stepped on. My Dad noticed that our black-eyed peas were being picked and eaten as he would find half eaten hulls or just the hulls on the ground.

That night my Dad called his 3 brothers and they came to our house along with my Granddaddy and uncle and they had a meeting in our Livingroom and we the kids had to go play in our rooms. Wes I'm not joking with this my Uncles were locked and loaded Mississippi rednecks were in full effect. LOL.. My Granddad and uncle ( his son) were in the loft of our barn.

Two of my Dads brothers got on top of my Dads work shop and my Dad and his other brother were posted up in the field in the back of his old truck. I do not know what time it was but it was late and guns were going off. I jumped up out of bed and ran to a window to see what was going on. After a bit my Mom was pacing back and forth wondering what had happen. The family walked in and each one was shook up. I think because they saw IT.. They told me to go to bed and don't come back out. I could hear them talking and one of my Uncles saying This is not true There is no way that is real I cant believe it .. They staid the night and in the morning everyone went into the woods looking for what they may have seen the night before. around 11 am the men came back with a lot of questions on their face. None of them talked about it and I was told to not talk about this ever to no one. From then on there were no more encounters until the spring of 1993.

I was riding the school bus home and was sitting at the back of the bus on the right hand side and my friend Joe was sitting across from me on the left hand side. We passed a bridge that had a small open field on the side of it. This field met the edge of the land my family owned . There it was squatted down drinking water from his hand and in the split 3 seconds Joe and I saw the creature we both turned to each other asking DID YOU SEE THAT! I said what the Hell was that and Joe straight out said Bigfoot!!! a few moments later i was off the bus and was running into tell my Mom. At this time my Dad and Grand Dad had both passed so now this news really shook up my Mom. It was not until a few months later my mother sold the land and we moved away."

We will wrap up with Timothy Renner to discuss his new book, I Have Never Minded the Loneliness: Hermits and Their Stories.

What compels a person to leave behind society, forsaking family, friends, and the comforts of modern life to live in solitude? The hermits of the 19th and early 20th Centuries are as fascinating as they are mysterious. These enigmatic figures often became the focus of public interest, with newspaper stories turning them into local legends, folk heroes, and symbols of a life apart.

Within these pages, you'll discover the extraordinary lives of hermits who defied convention: John Stink, rumored to have died and risen again–more than once; William Woodruff, whose long vow of silence followed a broken heart; Brusher Mills, the serpent-hunter who sold his own snake-oil remedies; and Truman "Commodore" Downs, who claimed Mars as his homeland. Meet Adolphe-Julian Fouré, the reclusive priest who carved strange tales into Brittany's coastal rocks, and Alice Grace, who made her home in an old bacon box, telling fortunes. From William Pester, the desert-dweller who may have inspired Nat King Cole's Nature Boy, to the Old Leather Man, a wandering enigma clad in patchwork leather, and O.B. Joyful, the hermit some call America's first hippie–these stories, and many more, reveal the complex lives of individuals who chose to live apart from the world.

Link to: I Have Never Minded the Loneliness: Hermits and Their Stories

Brian writes "I do not believe in bigfoot 100% but I absolutely believe your witnesses. So, on the fence.... However, my friend Gravy and I were backpacking in WNC somewhere south of Boone but north of Ashville. (Switz?) We have crawled all over these mountains for about 20 or 30 years. 10 to 20 mile backpacking weekends.

Typically easy to moderate but we weren't afraid of elevations. Anyway it's fall, we ascend to camp on a ciff face just above treetops with more trees above us We camp in the tree line to escape wind but walk back out to clearing before bed to stargaze and smoke a bowl after supper. I walked to edge of lip looking down and notice a blue light. I thought, Oh, we are not alone, there's other campers (headlamp?).. Then as I'm focusing on the headlamp I realized that I could see the area being lit quite well cause there were no leaves on the trees. Basketball sized blue light casually meandering through the pines 10ft off the ground. 2mph maybe. Over there, circle that tree, drift over here, as if directed by wind. Whole thing lasted 10 minutes and when Gravy suggested we circle down and investigate I chickened out and defensibly said HellNah! Eventually it drifted off aimlessly.

I just texted him and he has no recollection of this event, granted it was early 90's and we're currently 50yr olds. That's it. Nothing else but occasional head scratcher. No sounds no print's no broken branches no eriee feelings of dread. But that light was real. Ball lightening is all I can think.

Joseph writes "I don't have exact dates for these but everything happened in September and October of 2024.

Let me preface by saying that I'm an outdoorsman and a misanthrope; I spend most of my time alone and have been on many "dark to dark" hunts on my own, even when I was young, so I don't get spooked easily.

I only have 8 acres in Fort Hill Pa but my land is very secluded and is in the mix with a huge amount of wooded acreage.

The strangeness started when I was noticing that the woods behind my house were quiet every night,when I'd leave for work, while the woods across the road were 'normal' with the usual sounds. There's an old logging road at the corner of my yard that goes back onto mine and others property's and my attention kept getting drawn there; not necessarily 'being watched' but more like 'something is there'. I had been noticing this for about a week or so before I was talking to my son on the phone one night, he's 24 and is the only person who lives with me, and he commented that he had been taking the shotgun out every night when he would take the dogs out to potty.

I of course inquired as to why because of my recent "feelings" and he basically told me the same thing that the woods behind the house were too quiet and he felt like something was off and he even commented on the old logging road being the center of this feeling.

I drive truck and my hours are different every day but the next week I switched shift and was returning home at night instead of leaving; I backed into the detached garage and started to walk towards the house and heard movement from that road so I sat everything down and started to walk down there. It was a moonless night so I couldn't move fast but I know the road and I'm the type that goes in hunting at dark with no flashlight so I'm fairly skilled. Whatever was back there that night was definitely bipedal and was purposely keeping the same distance from me; if I'd stop it would stop and when I'd move it would move. I didn't press the situation more than 100 yards as the old road degrades the farther you go.

There are 2 massive pipes buried under that road for water drainage and I do my best every spring and fall to keep them clear of debris; that following weekend I was down in the dip clearing those pipes, this was early morning around 8am, and I heard an incredibly loud and huge sounding tree break; it sounded like something as big as a 4x4 or 6x6 piece of lumber just snapping. I walked up out of the dip and moved in the direction of the noise, 50-60 yards away in a grapevine thicket I saw something huge and black moving away. I couldn't discern anything at all except big and black so it is possible to have been a black bear.

Later that day, in the afternoon, my son and I were down at the pipes; we were taking in some quick Crete to shore up the hill side and channel water. I was using a spade shovel to stab/chop at young briar plants growing in the area and I noticed him staring in the same direction as the grapes; I asked him "what" and he said "nope, not a thing". Of course I pressed and he said "I heard a knock, at first I thought it was the shovel echoing but it was only once and wasn't in rhythm with you."

During the next week I arrived home one night and had to hop out of the truck to urinate before backing into the garage and heard 3 loud knocks in succession. A few days later we had a fog bank come in at night, it was roughly 2am and I had to take my dogs out, this was thick enough that you couldn't see more than probably 20 yards, this may sound like nothing but it was strange at the time, the whole forest was quiet except 5-6 song birds(idk what species) that seemed to be surrounding the yard and all 'singing' back and forth to each other. Nothing else happened, I just went in for the night.

Everything so far is easy to write off as nothing really but the last 2 events aren't.

Days after the fog I was walking back from taking the garbage to the road and an aircraft caught my eye, I see a huge amount of aircraft where I live. This craft didn't have any blinker lights, it was just 1 pulsing white light, the whole thing pulsed not blinked. I'm not sure about altitude and the shape seemed to be an oval. As the craft traveled across the sky I watched it do a 'zigzag' pattern once and right before it left sight I saw it stop and 'hover' for about 3 seconds before it continued away.

2 days later the last part of my string of events happened. I had to switch shifts so I came home and had to basically take just a few hour nap and go back out. It was 2am, I awoke to take the dogs out and as I walked off my porch a red light in the woods caught my eye, I turned to focus on it to see that it was 2 red dots/lights, I kept walking and heard myself say out loud "nope....that is not what it looks like; it can't be what it looks like". I kept watching the dogs but checking on the red dots; the dots never changed or moved. I let the dogs in and grabbed a flashlight/laser combo for rifles that wasn't mounted to anything yet. I went back out and moved towards the edge of the yard where the red dots were; distances can be difficult at night but i estimated them to be 35-40 yards aways and roughly 7'off the ground.

Understand that I'm standing there in shoes, a t-shirt, and my boxer briefs so I wasn't ready to be going off into the woods.

I shined the light on the red dots and the light did me no good, it was like the light just stopped working so far out so I tried the laser, this was a green laser; idk if you know the difference but green laser you can see the whole beam in the air; I couldn't see what the beam was hitting but I could definitely see the beam hitting something and stopping on whatever it was. I don't know why but I moved the green beam up to one of the red dots and both moved, together, down and to my right away from the beam.

I didn't freak out but I did say out loud "oh fuck me"; when I said that the dots "twinkled". I turned the light laser off and said "you just want me to know that you're there", they twinkled again. I then said "Okay, I'm good, I'm going in now but if you're there when I'm dressed then I'm coming in". I never felt like I was in danger during any of this just really unnerved.

A half hour later I came out dressed for work and the red lights were gone.

I have had absolutely nothing even remotely weird happen since.

I don't know if this was sasquatch activity or not but I know that something was there."

Gene writes “I was around 13 or 14. It was about the third weekend of November. I know this because I was deer hunting. We were on land belonging to Peabody coal company in Muhlenberg county. At that time was 62,000 acres of reclaimed coal land.

It was around 4 pm. I was standing in a field looking north, my father had went down a holler to the west of me. I heard my father shoot three times. This was strange because he always shot once and a deer was down. I then moved to the mouth of the holler to see if any deer would be running my direction. I then started to hear people talking, I could not understand what was being said, but I could hear it. I thought well dad is talking to someone and has killed a deer. I proceeded to head down the holler to help him.The holler was open hard woods and you could see a long ways, except for right at the bottom where a intermediate stream was.

I got about 50 yards from the brush when two animals busted out of it running straight at me. They were covered with long reddish brown hair about three inches long and were knuckle walking like a great ape. They were about four feet at the shoulder and their hips were lower than their shoulders and knees. Their faces were flat and I saw no ears.They were chattering to each other or something else and that was the voices I heard “talking”. While at this time in my life I did believe in Bigfoot, since my father was a long haul truck driver and another truck driver had claimed a Bigfoot had run behind my dads truck near the Kentucky-Tennessee line, but for me Bigfoot was single creature that walked up right. Anyway, these two animals are running straight at the 13/14 year old me and I do not know what they are.I yank my 30:06 rifle up and fire. I do not think I even aimed, just shot towards them. When I did this there was a big noise behind me and I remember thinking “ they have me surrounded” I spun around to defend myself and saw a squirrel running up a hickory tree right beside me. I spun back around to the threat I knew and they had already crossed the brush bottom and was halfway up the ridge on the other side and I shot at them once more as they run off. They very fast.

Once I meet up with my father, he confirmed that he had also shot at these creatures, but was shook up enough to have missed three times. We tried to convince ourselves that these were some sort of wolf and lived under that delusion for many years, until I began studying primates on an academic level, did I let myself believe what I know to be true all along.One thing that scares me to this day is the thought of were they chattering to each other or to mom or dad that was near by that I never saw. I have hunted that area since I was 12 and I just turned 50 this year and I have never set foot in that holler again.”