Big Food and on with Cliff and Bulbo.
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It live Stock and me righteous on Quesh today and listening watchy Limb always keep its watching.
And now you're hosts Cliff Barrickman and James Bubo Fay.
Hey Bobo? How you doing? Man?
What's up? How are you?
I'm doing all right, doing all right. Just got back from a couple of days vacation that Melissa and I desperately needed. And I want to thank everybody who's listening for all the kind words and condolences and stuff about our beautiful dogs Sochy, Hey Bob, so Whi, I got you in the air. Let me ask you something real fast. Do I have your permission to do a Dogs of
Finding Bigfoot display at the NBC. I'll take a couple of screen grabs and stuff of Monkey at her best because you know, we found Sochi on the show as well. Finding Bigfoot brought us a lot of good things to her life. So I thought that would be a good fitting tribute, and Melissa asked me if I would do it, and I want to ask your permission before I went in and grabbed a bunch of pictures of monk. Yeah, rad cool?
Cool?
Do you have anything around you want to you want to put in the display, like an old leash or something like that, or a caller?
Uh? Yeah, you know what I gotta. I hope I didn't toss tho, but.
Look around, look around, see what she got and see what she got, okay.
Because she never wore a collar though, that's the thing.
Yeah, she always went commando. I know.
Yeah, she didn't like wearing, so I didn't make a wear one, but she didn't really need one usually, But yeah I do. I do have a monkey one because it's got a heart and says monkey on it and it is my old phone umber, so that's our So yeah, I can get more calls again.
Exactly, all right, cool cool. I'll buggy about that off the air or anything, because we've got a big show we wanted. We got a lot to talk about this episode, and the members too. We're recording late. Man, We're gonna be on this this call forever, I think, because we're our of our stupid awesome guests, stupid sexy Eli Watson.
Fors gonna see the sun risebats on this episode?
Is Dan? I know? I know, Hey, Eli, how you doing, man?
I'm good. How are you doing?
All right?
What's up? By?
What's up? Bob?
Not a mucho? Just my bowling average and GPA.
Hey nice Bob.
He called you the singular version of Bob's.
It came out weird.
So isn't that just Bob?
Yeah? You know, it's like I had a friend come up to me once say, hey, you know there's a book in the Bible called the Book of Job.
Yeah.
Well, Eli's with the Sadan of course he's He's the skill and talent and brains behind many, many, many small Town Monsters production, including one of them that we're going to be focused on today because if anybody is in the Pacific Northwest listening to this, you need to know that this coming Thursday, May twenty second is the world premiere of a Siege at Ape Canyon, that the whole
Small Town Monsters Ape Canyon Extravaganza. And Eli tell me this is like a super special premiere here because am I correct in saying that the actual movie won't be publicly available until like the end of summer fall or something like that.
You know, I'm not exactly sure on when the official release date will be but yeah, this is the first time it's going to be publicly seen by people.
So in a legit theater, the Kickens Theater in downtown Vancouver, Washington. All sorts of people are gonna You're gonna be there. I'm gonna be there, and Melissa is gonna come. A bunch of nerds from the North American Bigfoot Center are coming. Much of our members as well. I think a bunch of members from the podcast are going to be showing up because we mentioned it briefly on the Members episode
last week. Larry Lund is going to be there. Who knows what other Bigfoot of Royalty is going to show up?
Well, Mark Murcell, mister Ape Canyon himself.
That's all you need to say. Yeah, yes, star of the show.
It's going to be quite the star stud of it.
Is. There gonna be a red carpet. There should be, yes, I honestly have no idea. I don't know the details.
A brown carpet.
There's going to be a brown carpet.
I think you're thinking of that South Park episode at the brown Note bobes.
It mixed up.
We should totally do a oh man, I don't have a tux man. What am I going to do? I need to get a tuxt all right, Well anyway, Yeah, So Thursday night at seven o'clock on May twenty second, the Cjay Canyon World Premiere at a theater called the Kiggins Cedar, a historic kiggensater in downtown Vancouver, Washington. I think it's on Main Street. But man, it's going to be a good time. All sorts of good people are going to be there. But this is all focused on
the c Jay Canyon. So, Eli, you filmed it, you edited it. What, Why in the world are you involved in this or how in the world are you involved in this?
Gosh? The short answer is that I I worked for Small Town Monsters and that was part of my job, was to make that movie. But the longer answer is, I, uh, back when Seth did on the Trail of Bigfoot the Discovery, which was all about the Olympic project. That was the first STM shoot I ever did, and that was the first time I met Mark Marcel and me and Mark just hit it off. So naturally, you know, Mark is
super easy to get along with. We both have very similar interests in history and a little bit of you know, gossip. As well. And you know, so over the years, you know, as I did more and more stuff in the Pacific Northwest, and I did my Road to Discovery series, and you know, I was coming up like every few months, I always made time to see Mark. So it just really felt natural, you know, because initially, like Seth was talking about how
he wanted to do Ape Canyon. But as the discussion kind of between you know, Seth wanted to make it, and then Seth wasn't able to come out, so he was gonna have me film it. But as the discussion kind of evolved between me, Seth and Mark, it kind of became clear that with my relationship with Mark, it made the most sense for me to kind of tackle it.
And since I was already going to be filming it and going up to the canyon and going to all these places and conducting all the interviews, it just made the most sense for me to kind of tackle the story in whatever way it kind of revealed itself to me. So that's kind of how I got involved.
Don't take this personally, but you're kind of a newcomer on the Bigfoot scene, yeah, because you haven't been involved that long, really, and how long have you been involved.
I started my podcast in twenty eighteen, but I didn't start doing field stuff till twenty twenty.
Yeah, so five years. Yeah, you're pretty new on the grand scheme of things, you know. Oh yeah, you were aware of the Ape Canyon incident before this or were you not?
Oh?
I was for sure. It was one of the first episodes of my show Crypti Campfire that I think we ever did was about Ape Canyon because that's like, that is the Bigfoot story and it's funny. After I made the movie, I went back and listened to it, and I was like, Wow, almost everything I said about Ape Canyon was just completely wrong.
Welcome to Bigfooting. Yeah, I think I said it on this podcast a few weeks ago that you know, when you talk about bigfoot for a living or even as a hobby of you're bound to say things that are incorrect quite often.
No, definitely. I mean that's why I kind of like my podcast so much, because you know, it started off as like a hobby, a mild interest, and then over the course of years and years, because we still do the podcast from time to time, and as I you kind of see my growth as I get more and
more into the topic. The podcast is really like a record of my thoughts on Bigfoot and how they changed over time, and as I gotten involved with field research and interviewing people and meeting pretty much all the popular, well known Bigfoot researchers. I don't want to say I've met like every Bigfoot researcher because that's just not true.
And like you mentioned Larry Lund, that's someone I've never met before, you know, But it's just interesting going back and listening to like my thoughts on Bigfoot in twenty twenty one, you know, and you can hear how I get jaded over time.
Well, I'm sorry if I had any influence on that. So now.
The topic has a way of doing that to you. But you know, that's why that's why I was so excited to do Ape Canyon though, because you know, Mark is really one of those special guys. You know, Mark
is just this He's an incredible, incredible person. You know, you have this line in the movie Cliff where like there's a fine line between genius and insanity and Mark is doing a wheelie on that line all the time, and that's absolutely true, and it really sunk in for me when we went up to the canyon and I saw Mark going down in the canyon and I was just like, I'm gonna have to do this, Like I can't shake him out like this, I have to get these shots. I have to go down there, you know.
I didn't want to go down.
No, it's horrifying. And to see Mark probably wearing like, you know, slip on shoes, carrying an eighty pound backpack, just going face first down like forward, not even backing, you know, going backwards down down the rope, walking forward down the rope. And I don't know how old Mark is. He's ageless, he could be could be forty nine, he could be eighty seven. I have no idea how old Mark is. And it's like, you can't let that guy go down and you not good and you're you're a spry,
young bucket of what twenty eight years old? I have no idea how you are either, But you can't let this guy who's twice your age outshine you. But yet he does. He outshines us all.
Oh, he does absolutely.
You know.
My favorite is when we're hiking up to the canyon and he's like we've been hiking maybe ten minutes, and he goes, oh, I need a break, I need a breather, and he busts out a cigarette and starts smoking, and it's like, I'm not sure that if that's a breather.
It's those pure oxygen cigarettes he smokes.
Yeah, right, he's a beast. When we were out, he was like getting rained on. He never put on a jacket or anything. He just wants like same like cotton flannel shirt. And it was winter freezing, like you know, the mountains pouring rain like like verge of you know, thy snow, and there's Mark freaking just soaking wet and just sitting in a chair outside, doesn't didn't face and he slept in those same clothes this morning.
Still went and hiked all day. Yep, he's a madiac. When we went up there, he didn't even bring a sleeping bag. He brought a blanket and slept on the rocks. Yeah, I was like, what are you doing?
He's a beast.
Well, tell us about the trip, tell us about the hike up, what you guys found up there. Some of the stuff that is not going to be seen in the footage, because I'm sure there's a there's fifty stories behind the scenes. Up there.
Oh yeah, I.
Know, water is always an issue. Tell us about your experience up there at the at the site and getting down to the location and all that sort of fun stuff.
Yeah, well, you know, it's like a six mile hike or five and a half miles from where you park your car and you hike up to the to the
top of the canyon there. And I brought my brother, I brought my friend Tyler Hall, and Mark and Brad were there, Alex Pettakov was there, Shane kurse and was there, and Cindy and Jared Cadell were there, and then obviously the Mitchell brothers and we all kind of had different paces going up the mountain because you know, I you know, if I'm honest, I'm not in the best of shape. But you know, we're also carrying super heavy packs. I mean,
we're packing for multiple days of camping up there. We're also packing all of our film gear up there, and so it took us a good three four hours to get up there. And it's also July because we wanted to be there for the exact one hundred year anniversary. And so like when you're watching the movie, I think I say this in the narration. But when you're watching Mark at the cabin site in the movie, that is July tenth, twenty twenty four. I think that's exactly one
hundred years to the day after the fact. So that was a pretty incredible thing to do. But so we hiked up on the ninth and that was just brutally exhausting. And then of course, you know, we run out of water on the way up there, and we're like, well, Mark did say there was a spring, and you know, we're thinking it's going to be close by or something, and we get up there and it's like, no, the spring is another half a mile away and there's no shade.
We're like, oh gosh. And you know the spring, I'm not sure if you've been to that exact spring, because there's like a sometimes there's this water runoff where you can get it. That's get water that's closer to the camp.
Yeah, but yeah, you have to wait for the for the glacier above to heat up and melt, and then it's glacial silty water, you know, that kind of grayish, sort of semi translucent water, and it only runs for a couple hours until it gets too cold again and the glacier freezes up right not Yeah, so I have been to that spring that I know exactly, the one you're talking about, the one that runs all the time another half mile or more away.
Yeah, and you get that amazing view of Mount Adams.
Mm hmm.
It's stunning, it is. So went there, refilled our water, came back, and we basically just kind of relaxed for the rest of the day as we waited for you know, Mark took another couple hours to get up there, and you know, and that was the that was the funny part, is like we didn't know where camp was, you know, because we didn't have anyone to guide us. And like the Mitchell brothers, I mean, those guys are you want to talk about tanks? Those guys are tanks. I mean
they're absolutely insane. I mean they were freaking running up that mountain. I was like, dude, I don't I don't get that. I don't get that at all.
Well, you know, the Mitchell brothers, of course, they're the great great grandsons of one of the miners, and they're they're the guys who are absolutely insane because they rediscovered the mine shaft and and you know, Mark had been up there a number of times and got close to the mind. The mind entrance, I should say. It's not really a shaft, I guess, but it took somebody with
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Yeah, we went down there on the tenth and that was just a crew of Mark myself, Tyler, my brother, and the two Mitchell brothers. We went down there. We did some filming and that makes it into the movie. You know, Tyler. Tyler had a bad accident up there and ended up cutting his arm open down to the artery and that was like super terrifying situation. Luckily, Tyler is okay. You know, he ended up getting eight stitches in his arm. He's got this gnarly scar from it,
but overall he's fine. But that makes it into the movie just kind of highlight you know, anything can happen down in Ape Canyon. You know, it's when you're there in person, you can see how insane of an incline or decline that going down into the canyon actually is. But the cameras don't show that. They don't the cameras don't capture what it's like being there. So I felt like in the movie we needed something to highlight the
danger of doing that. And you know, it's unfortunate what happened to Tyler, but it's also like there's more than one danger. You know, you can you can slip and fall and die, which is what I thought was gonna happen. Thankfully, no one's up and fell down to their death down an Ape canyon. But then you're in, you're at the cabin site, and you think everything's okay, and it's like, no, you still have to be vigilant because anything can happen,
and you could. You could end up cutting your arm open, and you could. There's there's no way to get help down there.
No in the cabin site itself, it's like, oh, it's a cabin site. There's probably a fifty foot flat area where an old cabin used to be. It's like, no, no, there's there's there's When you're actually standing at the cabin site. I mean, I don't know about your experience down there, but for me, it's like, uh, looking around, thinking there's no cabin site. There's just some complete badass morons put
a put a cabin here. Like the last place you should put a cabin anywhere on the planet is on this slope above that that precipice, in this crazy spot. It's like, like, who in the world would ever dream of doing that? Just monstrous bad asses who would just look laughing at death, you know, basically. And boy, I'll tell you the school system must not have been very good back in the teens and twenties, because like, what
kind of person would put that stuff there? Just extraordinarily brave and foolhardy people.
Well, I'll say I was at the top of Ape Canyon. I watched Mark go down, I watched the Mitchell Brothers go down. I'm getting ready to go down. I throw my backpack on and I had a sling bag for the camera because I wanted to be able to tuck it, you know, safely, so there wasn't any chance of me dropping the camera. And I had set everything down because it's a bit of a hike to get to the top of Pumics. But and so I set everything down.
I throw my backpack on and it catches the strap for the sling bag and the camera freaking flies all the way around me and flings off right down into the canyon. And this is like sus like four thousand dollars camera and I'm just watching it tumble down, and I was like, great, there goes the movie. And you know, there was radio communication between me and Braiden, and Braiden
was like, oh, I'll go look for it. And I was like, are you sure, like cause you guys are off to the left and this thing went down to the right and I was like, I didn't see it. Stop moving. I'm pretty sure it fell all the way down. He's like, no, I'll go look. And him and Jared just start, you know, free handing it. Not even free handing it. They're just walking across, you know, all the slate and the shale, you know, and they're just and
they're like, oh, we found the camera. We found the camera, and I was like, you guys are insane. And so when you see that and you're like, so these are the great grandsons of Leroy Perry Smith, who was one of the original Minders, You're like, oh, it all makes sense. Of course they would make a cabin here because that's just who they are, you know.
Yeah, yeah, it takes people like that to not know any better. But no, but honestly, they're they're great, adventurous people. Like I met the grandsons, we did a special event at the NABC. Fantastic individuals, every single one of them. I'm glad that they got to go down and are going to be featured in the movie.
Yeah. Oh and just genuine people too.
Yeah, real solid, neat people. Yeah. What other though, Did you make it down to the mind Entrance?
I did not, actually, because everything that happened with Tyler. We were getting ready to go down to the mind Shaft, and that's when disaster struck with Tyler, so that kind of put a damper on those plans. We never actually I never actually saw the mine. I will probably never see the mine in my life because I don't think I'm going to go back down there.
I was going to ask you like that, do you do you have a draw to go back down? Like I know you just you just answered the question here, but like how painful is that to know that you're not going to do that.
I'm okay, I can live with it. I was literally having stressed dreams leading up to it, you know, Like I said, I brought my brother along. My brother graduated college last May, and he shot me a message and he said, you know, the only thing I really want to do this summer is go camping with you. And I said, well, this is like a once in a lifetime opportunity. We're doing this Ape Canyon movie. You should
come along. And of course, the closer and closer we got and the more mark described what the dissent would be like, I was like, did I just make a mistake?
You know, I distinctly had a dream right before we went up there, like a week before, and it was me and my brother alone climbing up out of the canyon, and I heard my brother like yell, and so I turned around and I looked, and he had this backpack on, and he had lost his step, he had lost his footing and he fell over backwards down into the canyon, and I just remember in the dream like feeling so helpless,
like I just witnessed my brother dying. And then that was like so weird because you know, we went down Tyler had his accident, and then like everything was kind of in disarray because I was like, well, I need to get back up so I can get service, so I can tell Seth what's going on. And Mark was like, okay, well I'm going to stay back a little bit and eat my lunch and whatnot. And so I was like, all right, come on, Joey, let's go up. And we're hiking up and I was like, I'm determined to make
this dream not come true. And so I was like, I'm going to wear the backpack and my brother's going to stay in front of me the entire time because in the dream he was wearing the backpack and he
was behind me. And we got to this one spot where we were taking a breath and I turned around and I looked and I was like, this is this is the spot from my dream, like where And I've had like freaky dreams in the past where I've seen things that are like eerily spot on, Like before I started dating my girlfriend, I had a dream about visiting her at her parents' house, and I had never seen her parents house before. And then when I went to her parents' house for the first time, I was like,
this is exactly from my dream. And so that was like another moment where I like turned around and I looked down and I was like, holy crap, this is the spot from my dream where I saw my brother die. And I didn't tell my brother about the dream until after we got out of there, but I just I didn't want to speak it into existence. But we got out of there and I was just like, holy crap.
Well, yeah, the canyon is no joke. I don't blame you for not going down to the mine site. That last time I attempted to get down to the cabin site.
I didn't even make it because were those those were those mountain goats poking around in the canyon when you were down there, because they were there when I was there last year ago July, and I was around the ninety ninth anniversary and on my way down, the mountain goats were at the same level as me, but on a different you know, little finger of the mountain and just looking over at me, going like what in the world. Are you doing here?
Yeah? No, no mountain goats this time.
Oh yeah, yeah, because I was talked off the ledge by one of those mountain goats like they are going, what are you doing here? And I looked at the goat and I went, yeah, you're right, what am I doing here? Yeah?
I've seen your video?
Okay, God, I was going to say I should have sent you sent you that video as a warning or something.
You know, if it's not too much of a spoiler alert. Did Tyler have to be extracted out of there or like when you called for help or how did that end up turning out? Unless you want us to wait for the film.
Oh no, So Tyler, there's no service down there. Luckily, Jared Mitchell had a satellite phone, so he was able to contact emergency services and they basically said that they weren't going to come for us. That was like holy cow. And we were all there and we all heard it and we're like, holy crap. And so Tyler was just like and that was the other thing. You know, Jared or Braiden had a tourniquit that he put on Tyler's arm, you know, cause like Tyler cut his arm and this
all happened like thirty seconds. So like, Tyler cut his arm. I was turned around looking another way, trying to figure out a shot. And then Mark and Tyler didn't even notice he had cut his arm. Mark Mark saw it first and he saw the blood spurting out of his arm and was like, Tyler, I think you cut yourself. And Tyler looked down and we all looked down and we just see the blood just like come at gushing
out of his arm. We're like, holy crap. And Tyler was like, Eli, you need to put your leg on my arm right now, and so I just jumped over. I put my knee on his arm, and Braiden comes over with the tourniquit and he's putting the tournique on. The tournique breaks and we're like, holy crap. Luckily Mark had a leather belt that we ended up using as a tourniquit, you know, And then we heard that and we're like, okay, we we need to figure something else out.
And so basically we had a Israeli bandage. We put that on Tyler as well, and then Tyler kept his arm elevated Tyder rope around. Uh. I think Jared's waste, and they basically him and Bryden tugged him up, brought him out of there, and Tyler had to walk down and that's where they were gonna they were going to meet him down in the parking lot, fricking six miles away.
They ended up sending people on bikes, which they didn't have room for Tyler, so I'm not sure what that was all about, but they ended up walking Tyler back down. They took him to the hospital and whatnot. But yeah, that was extreme, you.
Know, Yeah, that's wild. Luckily, Tyler has a lot of experience, you know, law enforcement experience and other forms of training, and so glad he was able to keep a cool head. I met Tyler when we filmed The Agents last year, like that do a lot.
Yeah, Tyler's great.
Stay tuned for more big Foot and Beyond with Cliff and Bogo. We'll be right back after these messages. Things can get real serious, real fast when you're out there, little things like you know, not to say that was a little cut or anything. It sounds like it's quite bad, but at home it would be a much much, much smaller deal than six and a half miles up and then down this forsaken cliff in the middle of god knows where, you know, with apes everywhere.
And with apes. Yeah, well, yeah, so that was wild. You know, I've shared this story once before on a STM live stream, but those those have a way of getting lost. But there was something very interesting I actually I think I told you about it, Cliff. A couple of days after it happened, we came down and visited the museum, but it was the third night, so you know, July tenth is when I went down there. Ly leven is when Alex and the rest of the crew went down.
And uh, oh, by the way, the mine the mind does make it into the film, like we get to see the mine in the film through the Mitchell's perspective, and I think I used a little bit of Alex's footage some of Shane's footage as well, so you do get to see the mine in the film. But yeah, so you know, the campsite, as you know, is like all covered in ash still from the nineteen eighty eruption, which is forty five years ago now. But you know, I'm thinking it's the middle of July, it's not going
to rain, and uh, I'm not bringing a tent. I don't want to. I don't want the extra weight going up the mountain. I'm not bringing a tent. Well, the wind picked up on that third day when Alex and them went down, and it starts blowing the ash everywhere, you know, and it's like getting in my eyes and stuff. And then that night the wind just picks up even more. I'm just like, dude, I don't want to stay here. And so Brad, you know, Mark's right hand man, Brad.
Brad had this like five by five plastic tarp that he set up for me and my brother, and he tied it up in these trees, you know, real loaded the ground to kind of create a wind break. So I'm like basically sleeping with like a tarp like an inch in front of my face. But it's better than being in the wind and getting ash blown all over you. But uh. I went to bed around eleven and I
wake up a little bit later. The wind had died down, and I wake up and I'm completely twisted around in my sleeping bag and my sleeping pad is completely deflated, and I was like, well, I'm really uncomfortable, but maybe it's like five six in the morning, like right, before the sun comes up and I can tough it out. I check my phone and it's midnight, and I'm like,
I have the whole night ahead of me. It was the second time my sleeping pad had deflated, and so I'm like, I'm not I'm not going to blow it up again because there's a hole in it. And that was the last time I ever used an inflatable sleeping pad. You got to get one of the actual mats because the inflatable ones suck. That's my pro camping tip for
anybody out there. And I didn't want to get out of my sleeping bag and get back in it, and so I'm like wrestling with it to straighten it out so I can be comfortable enough to go back to bed. And so I'm kind of aggravated about that. I'm wrestling with it, and then I'm laying there and I'm calm. I had been laying there for like maybe thirty seconds, and then I feel a hand grab my foot and
I immediately thought it was Brad. And you know, because Brad's a jokester, you know, sometimes I think he jokes too much, and so I'm not in the mood to like joke around with Brad at this moment. So I'm just like, I'm not gonna give him the response he wants.
He wants me to say something, and so I'm just like laying there, letting this hand hold my foot, and it's like thirty seconds goes by and there's like no sound, there's no voice, there's no like go to bed Eli, and I'm like, this is getting a little weird, you know. And my feet are hanging out of the tarp. You know, it's like five by five and I'm like five tens, so like everything from my knee knees below is outside
of the tarp. And so I'm like, this is weird, and so I pull my feet underneath the tarp and it just lets go of my foot and then I'm like listening and there's there's no voice, there's no laughter, there's nothing. And I hear it walk across. So I'm on the right side of the tar. My brother's on the left, on my left, and he's he's snoring at this point in time, and I hear this thing because again I can't see because the tarp is like an
inch away from my face. I hear it walk to the left and then I hear it walk alongside the tarp on the left hand side, and then it stops right behind us. And then I'm still kind of thinking. I'm like, it's probably Brad or something, you know, because Brad is he's a weird guy, so maybe he just didn't say anything. But that's when I hear Brad, who's camped off to my right. I hear him clear his throat, and so I'm like, Okay, so Brad is off to my right and he's in his spot, so whatever this
is isn't Brad. And then you know, Brad had all these mountainhouse meals that he had tied up into this tree to prevent the wind from blowing them away, and whatever this is, it starts grabbing the bags and I would say, like, like, it didn't open the bags, and it didn't like tear open the bags either. It was like crinkling them, like like if you were grabbing a bag of chips, you know, and you were just kind
of crinkling it. And I could hear this crinkling sound and that's when like my heart is like beating out of my chest and I'm like, I don't know what this is, and like it doesn't make sense, you know, Like I said, there's a lot of people in the camp, but like I don't see anyone, Like why would they come up to this tree and start grabbing the bags like they they all know that Brad's trash is in
this tree. And then it does that for about a minute, and then it turns and it walks away off to my right, but like backwards to my right, so not like towards Brad's spot, but off towards the mountain where there's nothing, there's nothing out there. And I hear it walk away, and it's walking on all the pummus and all the volcanic rocks out there, and I'm just like, what the heck was that? And the and the most
bizarre thing is I just went to bed. I just fell asleep after that, so and you know, I wake up in the morning. There's no you know, like if it was a wild animal that was trying to get into the bags, you might expect like all the trash to be scattered everywhere, but no, all the bread, all the bags are intact. They're still up in the tree. There's no footprints. And I start talking to everybody. I start telling everybody about the experience.
You know.
I first tell my brother, you know, I was like, I'm pretty sure you were asleep when this happened, but do you do you remember hearing anything? He was like, no, you know, I'm talking to Shane, I'm talking to Alex, I'm talking to Mark, I'm talking to Brad, and everyone's like no, we were all asleep by midnight, you know.
And I was like, then, I don't know what this was, you know, you know, you start running through all the possibilities in your mind, you know, You're like, well, maybe it was like a bear, you know, and it's like, no, I don't think it was a bear because when it grabbed my foot, it was both sides of my foot, which is why I thought it was a hand, which is why I thought it was a person, you know. And the only way a bear could touch both sides of your foot at the same time is if it
put your foot in its mouth. And I didn't feel teeth, so then I'm thinking, well, could it have been like another camper? But then I'm like that doesn't really make sense. Like, if your goal is to sneak into someone's camp at night, you're not just gonna grab someone's foot.
It is immensely strange.
Yeah, squatched me, squatches do that, So I don't see why. It's so it's not out of the ordinary. It's out of the ordinary, but it's not like it's unusual, but it's not unheard of it at all.
Right, Yeah, one of these days I'll have to tell you a similar experience I had. That's that's pretty remarkable.
Well then it's like, you know, then I'm put in a weird spot, you know, because I've had you know, audio encounters, like I've heard knocks out in the woods. I've heard footprints out in the you know, I've heard walking out in the woods before, and I've found footprints
out in the woods before. But like, you know that that's when it like really sunk in with me, with all these witnesses that are afraid to come forward with their experience and be like, you know, people are going to think I'm crazy, and it's like I feel like like even now, I'm still kind of nervous sharing the story because it's like what do I tell people, like a big foot grabbed my foot? You know, It's like
that's so that's so out there. But like like Bobo said, you know, I've I've definitely heard stories of you know, similar stuff happening, so I know it's not like completely out of the ordinary for a sasquatch experience, but it's just so weird to me.
I was going to ask you if you had that sensation, but then, you know, I was thinking about the fact that you had to ask the other people if they were up, because in my experience Camp Visitation, I was asleep in my vehicle, but it was right outside of the vehicle and it shook the vehicle. It's a long story, but it went through trash and I expected to find a mess if it was a bear, and there was none.
None of the trash was disturbed. But I heard it go through this trash bag for a lengthy time, and it shook me so much because I was awake and this was like right before sun up. I thought for a long time before anyone got up, and I convinced myself, like, I don't think I'm ever going to tell anyone about this, because I don't know that people will believe me, even though I'm there with like five of my favorite squatching buddies. I just thought, God, no one is going to believe this.
No one's going to believe this, Like, I probably shouldn't even tell anyone, So I totally understand.
Let's hear it.
For what happened, I'll tell it on a members episode or something, because it takes a while to tell.
I'm holding to it.
Yeah it was bizarre, man, But yeah, that's Ape Canyon for you.
That was the great great great grandchild of the ape that bothered Leroy.
It could have been, it could have been.
And you know that spot, you know, I mean Mark and Brad have heard stuff there before they found they cast a footprint there or very close by before. I think, Cliff, you were there for that or did you.
Cast No, No, that was the year before I win.
That was the year before you win. I mean, so there's like a precedent. There's still stuff going on in the Ape Canyon area, and then even on the other side of the mountain there. I mean you have like the North Fork Survivor Museum with Joe bon Giovanni and you know, Chris Spencer was doing audio research there. I mean, there's still stuff happening around Mount Saint Helen's, you know. But I guess I just didn't expect to be that close.
Well, you know, it's what you get. Stay tuned for more Bigfoot and Beyond with Cliff and Bobo. Will be right back after these messages.
Yeah, well, I'm excited for people to see the Ape Canyon movie. You know. It means a lot to me on you know, several different levels.
You know.
Obviously it's like the biggest Bigfoot story. If you're into Bigfoot, you know about Ape Canyon. And like I was saying earlier, you know, there's so many inaccuracies that you find online and I'm you know, I'm guilty of adding to that through my own podcast, but uh, you know, Mark has done the research. You know, I consider Mark a really good friend. I talked to Mark a couple of times a month, you know, and I mean we talk about everything.
We talk about life and stuff, you know, and I think, you know, I had the chance.
You know.
There was some back and forth creative stuff about the direction of this movie, but I was like, I was really pushing for this. I was like, when I filmed it, I was like, this isn't really a Bigfoot movie. And I know some of the Bigfoot diehard people are going to be maybe a little upset with that. There's not enough Bigfoot evidence. But I'm like, no, you have this really really great story about Mark Marcel, who's this great guy who did something of significant historical importance. You know,
this is a historical film. It's about a researcher. You know, it's not so much about the Bigfoot. I mean, there's no way like Mark found the cabin period, but there's no way you could prove that the miners were attacked by Sasquatches there in nineteen twenty four. There wouldn't be any evidence of that left over, you know. So it's like you have to kind of focus on like this is a piece of history that belongs to you know, Longview, Washington that has largely been forgotten. You know, it was
part of the folklore there. You know, there's the miners went into town and shared the story and I'm sure it was the hubbub for the next years, but over time it's been forgotten. I mean, it's one hundred years ago.
And then you get into like, you know, Betty Mitchell, the daughter of Leroy Perry Smith, is interviewed in the film, and she talks about how she didn't hear the story growing up, or or she did hear the story growing up, but didn't know that it was her father who was involved with it, you know, and it's just like there's this really human story to it. And that's like always, always my goal with telling these documentaries is like, what
what's the human element of it? You know, That's that's always my interest, more than the bigfoot thing, you know, And maybe that makes some people upset. I don't really care, though.
No, I think I think you're so incredibly good at that. And you know, your your Sierra's series, which I'll link in the show notes here. You know, I heard that story, you know, the Justin Smaya story when it first started like circulating amongst the people that were involved. And it's a sensational story, and so I think most people's instinct, as you could tell from all the past representations, is to sensationalize it.
You know.
On this week's episode of yadaa YadA, you know, the shooting of a sasquatch, and your telling of that story was so human and so calm and well paced and well edited, well presented, your musical choices, the footage, just everything about it. When I saw that first episode, my wife and I watched it and we both loved it, and I was texting a bunch of people like you have to watch this. It doesn't matter whether you believe
the story is true or not. I'm not even asking anyone that just like, this is the single best treatment of a Sasquatch story or claim that I've ever seen, and I would I'd say it to this day and to all our listeners, like, that's my favorite Sasquatch documentary, that whole series. I'm looking forward to seeing that series play out. But also that same human treatment given to this ape Canaan story sounds amazing to me.
Well, thank you, you know, and that you know that was again my goal with the Sierras too. It's like, you know, that was a case I had personal interest in looking into because I just wanted to know what was going on with that whole thing. And you know what I discovered is that, you know, there is a human story to it, and you know, whether you believe Justin or not. Whether I believe Justin or not is not really the question that's being asked in the film
or in that series. It's it's like, just here's a person who believes or thinks you know that they did this, or is claiming that they did this, you know, but it doesn't exist in a vacuum, you know. It draws in so many different people from the bigfoot world, like Bart Katino and Todd Hale and Rosahebe and Derek Randalls, you know, and all of them make an appearance in that series and they all have a chance to speak
their mind on what they think happened. And you know, as Stacy Brown was involved, you know, and it's just like it was such a big story and it involves so many people and so many different elements, and you know, it's a convoluted story and it was a challenge to be able to tell right And it's like I just resorted to what I feel like i'm good at, which is just focusing on the human element. And it's like,
how did this affect people's lives? Talking with Seth, you know, like the original vision for Small Town Monsters was less focus on bigfoot evidence and more like, Okay, well here are these people who claim they've seen a bigfoot. How has it affected their life? You know, what's the aftermath of seeing a bigfoot? And that and that is the goal with the Sierras. It's like, Okay, this guy makes this extraordinary claim, Well, what's the aftermath of that? And
how does it affect the people involved? And I think that's really what's.
In You are supremely good at that, and I think that's a hallmark of small town Monsters. Like whenever my friends have appeared in any Small Town Monsters production, they come across as I know them, which is never the case with like network television or one offs or like most documentaries. You know, because people are very easy to caricature, and so they get put into certain situations and then edited in such a way that you only see this
one dimensional aspect of a person. And because of the treatment you give to people that I know, and they appear as I know them, that trust extends to like when I watch your films with people I've never met, I'm like, well, that must be who they really are, because I know that you're not trying to present, you know, like a preconceived variant of who you think that person is. You're letting that person be them, And that's super special.
It's exceedingly rare. So I cannot wait to see the Cejday Cave for that reason.
Yeah. Well, and I'll throw this out one last bit here is the the upcoming NABC documentary, which I shot with Cliff last March. Finally in the editing room, finally cutting that together, and I'm going through all the interviews, and I'm so so excited because, excuse me, Cliff, but I think you really open up in a very personal way that I don't always see you do in public appearances. So you know, you're you're a tough nut to crack, Cliff.
I think I got you to open up a little bit and we get a peak of the genuine human being you are underneath, you know.
Damn you eli.
When you're not finding Bigfoot, Cliff.
You know, yeah, I'm teacher Cliff on most TV shows, but when I'm with my friends, I'm certainly less guarded friends and pigeons.
Yeah, I'm so excited too, because, you know, we get into a little bit, you know, about how you and Melissa met, and you know, just kind of I don't know the documentary, Sure, it's about the NABC, but it's really about you, you know, and I'm really excited for people to see that. Maybe you don't like that, but I like it.
That comes out pretty soon too, right.
Yeah, so it'll come out for Squad members on May twenty second, saying not as the premiere, but it'll make it. It'll be public on the twenty sixth.
I believe, Oh very cool.
You know.
I was going to say about your h the documentaries, I was the Justin one was the kill site was I wish I got you the video where Justin was telling all us all the first story on location, all of us for the first time. I was the only guy videotape in the whole thing. And that's when my dog Monkey flipped out when he said he buried the baby one like he said, I still eat that bush and buried it right there. Monkey went over there and
was she was. She was like fifty that. We were about fifteen feet away, and she just starts barking at the ground and digging crazy and biting the dirt and digging and barking and barking, and dude, we thought we had it, like Melder, Maya, Chinsky, Derek, we were just like all our mouths. Tropp were like, no wad. Justin was like I told you, I told you, you know,
and that we dug and we couldn't find anything. Yeah, but it was interesting that that to all of a sudden there that was like one of the most compelling things about his story.
Yeah, well, I remember you told me that and I called you.
I couldn't find it.
I think it's I think it's gone.
I looked. I'm gonna go through some more boxes coming up, but I think, well, the camera got smashed, and I'm pretty sure that was that. That was the I had two Yeah, there was two cards and I I can't remember which one was was in the camera because that one that that SD car got snapped in like three pieces. They got run over. But anyways, Yeah, that that would have been so bull that was in the dock? Is
that what it was? It was if you were there, it was like wow, like you really thought it like it was we thought.
For sure it was there. Yeah, there's a lot going on with that case. That's what I just keep saying.
Yeah, I know, you do excellent work. I've been telling everybody they have to watch that and your other films too. You know, I've recommended the San Diego County Oriented when where you covered a bit of the Zubi's case, and also that Long Term Witness because I've always been fascinated with that so cal activity and so that one in
particular I really really enjoyed. So I hope every one of our listeners, if they haven't seen those already, I'll link them all in the show notes because they need to check those out for sure.
Yeah. I'm really blown away by that, because I mean that that whole series kind of came together as like Seth was like, why don't you look for Bigfoot where you live? And I was like, in southern California, you know, And you know, the more I started digging, the more I kept uncovering, and I really turned some heads, I guess because I'm still I got an email two days ago about someone saying that they had an encounter in the Santa Monica Mountains, and I was like, what the heck?
Yeah, I find that Southern California was super interesting.
Well all right, but we need to move on and go do a members episode. But for everybody listening yet, that's been Eli Watson here and thanks so much for coming on. Hopefully I'll see some of you guys at the Kiggens Cedar this coming Thursday night, May twenty second, at seven pm Kiggensedars in downtown Vancouver, Washington. That's K I G. G I n s. It's a historical theater. Lots of cool things are always being shown there with kind of one of those little private movie houses, you know.
And we're going to be watching the Siege of Ape Canyon with Mark Marcel and Eli is going to be there, and I'm going to be there, Melissa is going to be there. All sorts of good folks are going to be there, probably some of the folks that you see on screen as well. I have a text out the Shane Courson to find out if he's going to be there, but he has not texted me back yet. I sure hope he is. This is going to be a good,
good time. I might bring just like a little piece of red carpet so I can walk around on it. Might might just get some red carpet, you know, glued on the bottom of my shoes or something. This is going to be a fun, fun event. Hopefully people will come out and check it out. But members stuff is next. If you want to be a member, check out that link at that map Proof will put in the show notes. If you are a member, you pay five bucks a month.
You get this episode the regular stuff, completely advertisement free, completely free of all ads, and you also get a bonus episode every single week, every single week. That's two hours of all of us folks here on this side of the microphone, every single week. So maybe that's something you want to do. Anything else you guys want to push before we get out of here.
Go watch the NABC documentary when it comes out.
Don't listen to him. It's gonna be embarrassing.
No, it's gonna be great.
I just maybe wants to watch it more.
Well, it's a good thing, I trust you, Eli.
Yeah, I'm glad you do.
Yeah, which is probably why I'm not going to watch it. But anyway, thanks for doing that for us, honestly.
Yeah.
Okay, folks, that's a wrap with our friend Eli Watson from Small Town Monsters. You can meet him in person with Cliff next week up in the Kickings Theater and Benkip watching the Ken movie. I would if I could make it out be there. You're a fool, I feel of anywhere in the Northwest. Don't go to that. But yeah, so congratulations on that. Can wait to see it, and thanks for listening everyone. Until next week, y'all, keep it Squatchy.
Thanks for listening to this week's episode of Bigfoot and Beyond. If you liked what you heard, please rate and review us on iTunes, subscribe to Bigfoot and Beyond wherever you get your podcasts, and follow us on Facebook and Instagram at Bigfoot and Beyond podcast. You can find us on Twitter at Bigfoot and Beyond that's an N in the middle, and tweet us your thoughts and questions with the hashtag Bigfoot and Beyond.