Skunk Ape Terror in Florida! | Archives

You're listening to Bigfoot Society, and I'm Jeremiah Byron. In this show, we go beyond the campfire stories to bring you first hand encounters from people who say they've seen something impossible. From backwoods trails and remote mountain haulers to quiet farms and crowded highways. The stories come from everywhere, and each one leaves us with more questions than answers. These are the voices of the people who've lived it.

Very good? How are you, Jeremiah.

I'm doing great. I'm excited to chat with you. I don't get to talk to a lot of people from Florida on the podcast, but can you tell us a little bit about the Mid Florida Bigfoot Research Group? Marie?

Oh boy? Okay, so.

I well, first of all, you can find the Mid Florida Bigfoot Research Group on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube.

And I also have a website.

It's mid Florida, mid Florida bigfoot dot com and there you can see you know, research gallery, photos, you know, press and media. There's facts about Florida. There's bios for our team members, so you can get to learn a little bit more about us if you like. But anyway, I started the group five years ago. I've always I've always been into the paranormal. I've been a paranormal investigator for over thirty years. And it started out with ghost hunting UFOs and then I had some friends who were

So that's how the journey began. Then I started going on Facebook.

Trying to find a group, a Florida group that specialized in just Florida research, and at the time, I couldn't find anything. So that was when I decided to start my own group. And you know, like I said, I've had her for five years. I have over seven thousand members now and it's just wonderful. It's a place where Florida researchers and individuals can go there not be ridiculed.

So that's why I do it, and it's it's been wonderful. And I have my.

Own research team and there's four of us. It's me and Mike Aular, Ruby, Joe Brew and Chris Hensley, and we are very dedicated, very serious Bigfoot in skun Gape researchers. We are out in the field in the swamps and what's every single weekend and we have been for the past five years, every single weekend, sometimes more than one day of the weekend. So it's it's just been an incredible journey and I'm just so grateful.

That's amazing. So every pretty much you said every weekend of every weekend. Wow. Is this primarily an Okawa National Forest or do you guys have kind of go around to different areas.

We go to different areas.

We're mostly in central Florida, which I'm in Tampa, you know. Mike is in an area called Wesley Chapel More, North Tampa.

So the places we go to are.

I've been to Thecla National Forest, like I said, but typically we go to areas north of Tampa and Pascoe County. We go to the Green Swamp, which is over by Lakeland. We go outside of Tampa, which would be around Hillsboro State Park.

Morris Bridge Road Highway three oh one, and so we just kind of rotate.

You know, we have places that we have found be interesting and some of the places are very interesting.

They never disappoint.

Every time we go out there, we will find something very weird, and.

So we just kind of rotate. We rotate around to these areas.

But we do have one particular active research area that we've had now for over two years and you talk about crazy activity.

It's been unbelievable.

And so, you know, probably maybe about ten places total in our area. And then we'll go down to the Everglades because David Chiley is an honorary team member. He's a skun Gate expert, so he's found the Everglades. We'll go down there and do research with him, or he'll come up to Tampa and go researching with us.

So we work closely together with him as well. And so.

But we've also been to other places in South Florida, depending on you know, if we're going to go on a camp out investigation or around Jacksonville, which is where we had incredible stuff happening there at Jennings State Forest in February.

So Dave Sheeley is one of the individuals. I've always wanted to meet him. I'm actually looking forward to meeting him in Oakridge. I'm going to be out in Oakridge.

Yes, yes, it.

Should be a fun time. There's a lot of really cool individuals that are going to be there. And yeah, he is a person I have yet to meet. Oh, yeah, it'll be a good time.

Yeah it is. You'll like him.

He's buried down to earth. Nice guy and we're going. We're also going with him. Mike and I have been asked to speak at the Meddling Falls Bigfoot Festival, which is in Washington and that's on Father's Day weekend June fifteenth, so that's for a month from now, so we'll be going there and we'll be doing a presentation about bigfoots

Madeleine is one of those that always comes up as a one that's really worth it to make the trip out to. So that's pretty cool that you're able to uh to get out there to speak for that. There's there's something I've noticed that you've said a few times, and I want to I want to hone in on it just for a little bit because it's kind of something that's always been in the back of my mind too. About Florida. You've mentioned a few times the terms bigfoot

Well, our team tends to believe that there are two separate species of you know. We have the reason why we believe that is the reports in different areas of Florida are different.

So, say, for instance, Central Florida.

To North Florida, the reports are the typical bigfoots a little smaller. They're usually six to nine feet tall, right, and they are you know, more muscular, they're beefy, they're you know, reddish brown hair, five toes and all that stuff. But once you listen, when you hear reports and eyewitness fightings,

Toes, four toes. That's interesting that that comes up in different places as well. Yes, have you found that the two one seems to be more aggressive? Is a skuncape a more aggressive creature or the big foot in the north of Florida more aggressive? Have you found anything like that in reports?

Not that much, except that I would.

What I don't know how to say this skuncapes, You know, there's the majority of them seem to be in the Everglades area. The Everglades area is about three million acres, okay, and so that's where it seems to be the biggest population is. So everything in the Everglades is out to kill you, Okay. So you've got Florida panthers, you've got Burmese pythons, you've got other dangerous killer snakes, you have.

You know, you have.

Coyotes, You've got all these things, the alligators, crocodiles. You know, it's very hard to you know, step into the swamps and the everglades and not encounter something that's out to get you. So that's why the skuncapes seem to be a little more aggressive, probably because they have.

To be right. They have to be in order to survive when you're dealing with.

All of those creatures, especially alligators and crocodiles and panthers, python, snakes. So, you know, but we do believe that the skunk cake could be a subspecies of bigfoots Now, there is a what's it called it, there's a rule called Bergman's rules, if you've ever heard of that before, that states that the closer you get to the equator, the smaller animals will be. So, for instance, deer deer and North Florida are big, but you go down to.

Like the keys or whatever. We've got a key deer which are tiny.

They're like the size of a dog, very small, but they have to be in order to survive because of the.

Heat and humidity that is down there.

You know, something big and bulky and huge cannot serve with all the muscle and the hair and stuff. It's hot, it's very humid, you know, the feel like temperatures can be over one hundred and ten degrees down there, so it's miserable. It's miserable here, it's more miserable down the Everglades. So that's that's why there seems to be a difference

A possibility as well.

So maybe that's why they got these long four toes. But I'll show you right here. I have a it's a copy of a cast that what if I part time team members found down south.

Okay, I'll show it to you here if you can see it. Can you see it?

Oh yeah, well see the cour toes. Yeah. Interesting.

Yeah, so it's pretty cool. But that's the kind of thing.

And this is a very narrow print as well, So maybe they are that way because they have to climb trees, and they need toes to be able to climb up a tree, you know, a cypress tree or whatever in the Everglades. When I was out there, with my team a few years ago. We were walking down this dry path where there's water on both sides. Right, it's the Everglades,

It would be the perfect.

Place for something to get up there and sleep, to get up there and.

Get out of the water.

It was in the water, but it wasn't too far off the dry path. It's the perfect spot. It looked like a hammock, not saying that's what it is, but it could be used whether it's a skunkgate or.

Maybe a panther.

A panther could jump up there and sleep to get out of the water, you know, the watery conditions.

So you know, I think when most people think of the skun cap, they probably think of the Mayaco photo. Yes, and you know that kind of has an orangutang, Yes, orangutan look to it. Have you found that in your reports that there's sometimes characteristics reports that are close to what orangutan would look like.

Yes, yes, absolutely, the majority of the Skunk Cape. Sightings are of a reddish brown creature and if you look at that picture of the you know, the Mayaka picture, it is reddish, you know, in color, but it has some white on its face and stuff like that.

But some people have said it kind of looks like amerangutang, but orangutang's you know, don't get to be five to seven feet tall, so we don't know what it is, but it's pretty fascinating.

You mentioned the Green Swamp earlier, and that's a location that is starting to come up in different bits of media. I've noticed different videos on YouTube, documentaries, et cetera. Have you experienced any things in that area?

Yeah, And what's really interesting, we've had some like paranormal stuff happen out there really well bigfooting that's where the majority of the stuff has been. So, you know, we've found structures, we have found prints out there. Part time team member of doctor Bill Hewitt and Bigfoot Dave Miller.

They were camping out there one night and.

Dave was in a tent and his head something but large hands put their hands underneath his head and lifted his head up in the tent to where he was at an upright sitting position, and then it gently put him back down.

That's not normal, that's not you know, pairs not going to do that.

No, I mean, how do you explain giant hands lifting his head through the tent?

You know, that's that's a whole new level of take you out if I wanted to.

Absolutely, absolutely. But earlier in the day, they were hiking and they found a grapefruit tree, a wild grapefruit tree, and so they were like, oh cool. You know, they picked a couple of the grapefruits and they stuck it in the backpack, and then you know, when they were done, they went to the camp and that night is when this creature came to their camp site did what it did with Dave, and then it also.

Opened up the coolers.

It took out a stack of hamburgers, raw hamburgers, and so you know, there's paper between the hamburg patties. There was a trail of white square papers leading out of the campgrounds. So it was eating hamburgers, throwing the paper down ate the next burger while it's walking. It was just throwing down the paper. I was eating the hamburgers.

Oh well, but.

They checked the backpack. It had taken the grapefruits.

It then zipped the backpack, took out the grapefruits, zipped the.

Backpack closed again.

So it saw them picking the grapefruits. It's probably his favorite tree, its favorite fruit or whatever food item, and he wanted it back. So he found them and got the grape fruits pack. He ain't got hamburgers in the.

Process, right, so extra extra bonus for him. Were there any tracks found around the campsite. No, okay, wow, that's really weird.

No, it's just hard, you know, it's just hard and leaves and pining needles and stuff like that.

Very trumpacted.

It wasn't a loose you know, it wasn't loose such straight or anything.

Has there been a time when you've been out researching in the field and just things got very intense and you're like, if I could get out of here, I could get out of here.

I haven't. I have not. I have not.

But team member Mike, he's been hit with infrasound about two or three times, so he has had that we got to get out of here. We got to get out of here, or he'll feel very physically ill, he'll have to sit down, he'll throw up, and so he's he's experienced in forsound about three times. I'm total while we've been out, I don't experience the fear. I don't know if it's because of my paranormal background. I've seen all kinds of strange things, so.

I don't know.

I'm just not that fearful. But I'm sure something walked. If a bigfoot walked out in front of me, I'd probably be a little.

Scared, but.

Most people would, yeah.

But also very fascinated.

Absolutely. What do you think that the closest that you've been to a big foot Earth's gun Cape would be?

Okay, the closest would have been.

In February, my mo went camping at Jennings State Forest and that's by Jacksonville. We went on a weekend camp out there. We were meeting up with Mike fam a lot from Shadow, a big red eye, a good friend of ours, and he always comes down the floor and in the wintertime and we.

Always go out with him.

So he picked Jennings because there's been reports there, and I really didn't.

Know that much about the reports.

But we went there on a Friday, and when we got there, it had rain, just lightly, not too much, and we became friends with a couple of volunteers who were doing like security. They were driving around the campground and stuff like that, and so they took us out at night. You're not supposed to go out at night, but they took us out, and they took us to this one interesting spot by the power lines, and so we got out of the car and we're just like looking around as pitch black.

You know, I have my little flashlight.

We weren't really prepared to go out exploring, but they took us out here. So everybody was kind of like standing around talking and there was a like a forest road.

It was all sand.

It had been tilled, so it was, you know, really clumpy and stuff like that.

Yeah, it was probably.

Tilled, you know, two weeks prior or something like that. And I had my flashlights. Saw one of the roads was really dark and creepy looking, and of course that's going to appeal to me. So I was like, screw it, I'm just going to go take a walk down this path and just see what I can find. You know, it's sand, right, So I'm looking and I see what looks like a footprint, and I'm like, hmm, and then

You could see toes.

And so I called the rest of the Mike and Chris over. Ruby was with me, and I said, take a look at this. I said, this looks like these look like prince and this looks like a trackway, and they're like, yeah, it does. And so we quickly did a measurement. The prince were sixteen inches long and the stride between the prince was fifty four inches. So that was like, this is amazing, but it's pitch black. It's

Now, Ruby and I were at one campground.

Mike and Chris we're at another campground next to us, and then mike family lot was at the last campground where.

Ruby and I were at. Her and I were car camping.

We were parked probably fifteen eighteen feet away from each other, so we gave each other plenty of privacy in room. But we were sleeping in our cars. And one thing about me is that whenever I go somewhere, I can never sleep on the first night ever.

So here I am. I'm in my car.

But prior to that, for some reason, I asked Ruby what time you get up in the morning.

I don't know why I asked or that, but I did, and she.

Says, I'm around four thirty or five, and I'm like, what, that's crazy. So anyway, so I'm in my car. Of course I'm trying to sleep and I'm just like, I can't and it's pitch black. I have shades on my windows and everything. And then probably around four or five in the morning, I hear something loud walking by Bailey.

On the driver's side of my car.

It's just boom boom, boom boom, and I'm like, is Ruby up? Why is she walking so loud? That doesn't make sense why she would be walking so loud. I just hear boom boom, boom boom, and.

I'm like, it's just really weird. And then something bumped my car. I went, WHOA, like.

That and I'm like, oh. I'm like, I'm still not believing it's anything weird. I'm still thinking it's Ruby, right, And I'm like, why is Ruby bumping into my car?

Why is she getting that close to my car?

It's like four or five in the morning, it's pitch black outside, and I was like, Wow, that's really weird. I'm like, huh, this is I'm not sure about this. So in the morning, when the light, when everything got light, I got out of my car, looked around, didn't see Ruby anywhere. I thought, okay, well, maybe she got up early and went for a hike. In the meantime, I walked down to where Mike and Chris were at their campsite.

It pushed my car, it bumped my car.

So it was then that we're like, oh goodness, we have a bigfoot that's walking around, bumped my car, walked around Mike and Chris is tents. Chris didn't hear it because he was asleep. Amazing, amazing. So I go back to my campsite. Ruby gets out of her car and I'm like, oh, what are you doing? I said, did you just get up? She said, yeah, I just got up. And I'm like, oh, so you didn't get up at four or five in the morning like you said. She's like, no, I'm just getting up now. And I'm like, it was

We brought casting material.

We tried to cast two of the best ones we could find, but our mixture I think was too thick. I wish it was a little more watery where it would possibly pick up the toes better. But Mike has an iPhone and there is a app there called scan Verse, and you could do a three D scan of the prints, and so he did and it turned out amazing. You

They were probably about three inches deep.

And like I said, the stride was fifty four inches sixteen inch prince and they went for about a quarter of a mile and ended at a creek. So what an amazing weekend, amazing four hours? Right?

That is wild? It was that was talked about in the Bigfoot Times.

Yes, yes, yes, and that's on my wall back there.

I can see it right, Yes, that's awesome.

Yes, Bigfoot Times March twenty twenty four edition. We made the cover and because Daniel Perez reached out to me and he's like, who found the Prince, and I said I did, and he's like, I want to talk to you. And so he interviewed me and I sent him pictures and he put us on the cover of the March issue, which was a huge achievement for us. And it was quite an honor to be recognized in that way. And it's an unbelievable story. So much happened that one night, you know.

So definitely, if listeners haven't heard of The Bigfoot Times and you like to nerd out about Bigfoot, you need to look that up and get a subscription to it. It's a print news letter that comes to you in the mail every month and talks about all the bigfoot stuff that you won't hear anywhere else. That's very cool.

Yeah, the lais is the greatest news in the bigfoot community.

Yeah. He does a great job with it.

He does a great job.

So yes, So that was That was the closest that I've really ever been to a bigfoot him outside my car.

Which is awesome. Yeah, I mean that's that's pretty close. Like you can your car is actually sounds like it was jostled back and forth.

Yeah, it was bumped from the back, It was bumped.

On the back.

Okay. Have you been back to that area since at that time?

Yeah, not yet, probably next winter, just because it's getting too hot now and it's about for us three and a half hour drive to get there, and but this time of year it's not good for camping. It's just too buggy, it's too hot and miserable. But next winter we probably will.

Okay. Have you heard of similar situations or sightings in that same area? Is that something you've looked into?

Well, I I heard I heard a story or read about a story like a couple of weeks ago of somebody who went to.

They knew about the.

Area, and they said, what's common The common reports there are a creature that jumps over the roads.

And hangs around the campgrounds.

M jumps over the roads. That's a jump over.

Yeah, jumps over the roads and goes in the campgrounds. And I didn't know any of this beforehand. I found this out afterwards. So when I heard they go on the campgrounds, I'm like, oh, yeah, here, that's exactly what happened to us.

So we were very lucky right place at the right time.

Have you ever been able to talk to me guessing Iowa we call him d n R. Any any forestry workers or any any officials state park employees about about big fight activities? Has that ever come up? Or is a thing where.

It's in that area or just in Florida?

Just I guess in any of your any of your areas that you.

Yes, Yes, We've befriended a park ranger and he's totally in the Bigfoot, which is awesome because you never think about park rangers being into that, you know. And so it was funny because Ruby and I were out doing an investigation over around where were we at Morris Bridge Road outside of Tampa, and I came back to Mike O was Chris came back to the car and there was a teeny tiny little bigfoot figurine that was left by my door handle on my window, and I'm like.

What is this? And the truck pulls up.

He's like, hey, I saw your bigfoot stickers and I thought i'd leave your presence.

So he was a park ranger. So then we started talking.

We talked to him for like an hour and a half, sharing stories, things he's heard, things we've heard, just compared notes. Amazing stuff, absolutely amazing, and so we're good friends with him now, which is awesome. And some of the there's been reports around outside of Tampa in his area, and he's heard of three reports of a whitish grayish bigfoot's been seen, and so one of the reports is a lady in my group, and then another guy in my

Happens or whatever. So that's a that's a good connection to have.

Yeah, that's the kind of that's the kind of guy we all need to have. A reminds me of like John Hickinbottom from Salt Fork State Park. He's a naturalist up there, but he's also totally into bigfoot. He's a great guy. I know, he listens. Have you ever heard a report or an account from someone where if it happened to you, you would probably not be going back out into the field.

Oh yeah, I've heard all those kinds of stories before. You know.

I I'm sure it's possible, you know, I mean, but I'm also not that fearful. So even though I've had other creepy, weird things happen, and when I was a paranormal investigator, you know, maybe I'm a little more immune to weird stuff. But again, I've never had one walk up to me. I'm hoping someday I'll see you one walk in front of me at least. But there's a

I'm not that way. I'm not that kind of person.

Yeah, I think that's a good discussion to have because I know that I see that come up in other places. And do you think it's something that we need to be afraid of whatever this creature is, or maybe it's something else we should have, maybe a healthy respect.

Well, I think we need to have a healthy respect, but we also have to protect ourselves. You know, we have to stay on alert because they're all creatures, right, we don't know what they're doing, what they're thinking, what they're thinking about us. You know, I'm sure they're scared of humans, right. You know, they know we kill animals. They know we tear down trees. You know, we're not a very pleasant species, and we're destroying their habitat.

You know.

And here in Florida there's development going up all over the place and there's places that you know, they they've become landlocked, Like there'll be a swamp and then they'll be housing communities all around the swamp. Right, So then the creatures in the swamp, you know, they just they live there. They can't go anywhere without being seen because they're developments houses everywhere.

So we've really messed up to their habits at. Their food supplies have been affected, and it's just that good. So you know, these are big creatures.

It's just like you know, you see an alligator, you're not You shouldn't go up to an alligator to try and pet it now, because most likely that thing is going to attack to you because it's gonna it's thinking that you're attacking him. So you just need to have a healthy respect for these animals, these creatures. Be on alert and protect yourself carry protection if you feel you need that. You know, it's just the best way to go about that.

Have there been any reports of big foot or skunkate being seen in areas where it's developments because the developments were made just on the edge of a you know, swamp area or habitat.

Yeah, exactly.

Well, our active research area is in one of those areas that's very land. You know, it's totally surrounded by development. So you have this big swamp and that's where we have a lot of activity going on. And when I say activity, you know, we you know, we have some stuff that we you know, we leave gifts, we leave toys, we leave experiments out there. You know, we just want to see what happens. We've had all kinds of crazy stuff happened.

You know. One of the things is we brought a teddy bear.

And the teddy bear had you know, normal stuffed animals have a white tag hanging off them, right, and it's impossible to tear it off. You normally have to use scissors to do it. And so when we put that out for the first time a couple of years ago, we put it out. We'll go back to the area like once a month, every four to six weeks, we just see what's new, what's going on. The teddy bear has been moved. We're flanging on the ground. Face first, the tag was ripped off the teddy bear and then

You know how hard it is to rip one.

Of those tags off a stuffed animal and then try to rip it in half.

It's very, very very difficult. But that's what happened.

So every single time we go out there, we'll still put the teddy bear. We put the teddy Bear facing out, We'll put it up against a big vipress tree. We'll just kind of like wedget down there, and every single time we go out there check on it.

Four weeks later. It's always turned around. It's always moved and turned around, so its face is up against the tree, kind of like it doesn't like it.

It's like a little game that we play. We fix it and it changes it every single time. Now people are like, well, do you put trail cams out there, which we all know if you're a bigfoot researcher, we know that trail camps do not work, and sure enough, the moment I put out trail cams, all activity stopped, everything absolutely stopped. And then we're like, this is ridiculous, we can't do this, So we remove the trail cams. Now everything's back to normal. We get activity all the time.

Crazy stuff.

Sticks shoved in the ground at thirty degree angles, three sticks laid parallel next to each other.

On the ground across the stick. We've had big sticks that have been bent around trees and secured. That's not normal.

Treefall branches don't do that when they fall straight down. They don't bend themselves and ledge themselves very tightly around other trees. Just insane stuff, Absolutely insane stuff.

That's some really weird stuff happening in that area. And I'm familiar with the you know, when you talk about gifting, you know, I've talked to a lot of researchers about that, but you mentioned doing like experiments, and that's kind of a new a new thought to have for me. Is that is that like what you did with a teddy bear or does that involve other things you were doing when you talk about experience.

Yeah, Teddy Bear is one of them.

Another thing is I brought up some rocks and I put them in a circle and I had a blue rock in the center of it.

I wanted to see if they would.

Stack them, because stacking rocks seems to be a northern thing, Like some researchers in Minnesota, even maybe in the Pacific Northwest will find the stacks of rocks and these streams and.

Stuff like that.

Yeah, we're thinking of the same guy in Minnesota. Yeah right, Yeah, that sounds like Randy.

So I put the rocks.

Now, this is going to sound really weird, but we don't have that many rocks in Florida. Okay, all right, it's shells, it's you know, just stuck. We don't have these nice river rocks that you'll find in a stream up north from the Pacific north West or even in the Carolinas. So but I had some and I'm like, what the heck? I put them out. I want to see if they stack them. They've never done anything with the rocks. I also put out an experiment. Somebody had

But we're just trying these different little experiments just to see what they do, if they'll do.

Anything, you know, we don't know it's worth trying, right, So it's all fascinating. But the Teddy Bear is the biggest experiment and it's the most fascinating one.

It's fun. It's like a game. Like I said, it's like.

We turn we correct it, it turns it around.

We correct it, it turns it around.

So it's really interesting.

Are you.

Do you keep your Facebook group up to date with the things that happened from your experiments.

Or oh, well I did with the teddy Bear.

I posted that on I think Monday. I did even like.

A side by side of comparison just to show you that this is what it looked like three weeks ago when we put it out. This is what it looked like when we went out there. And we also have done like some videos on YouTube about it, and I'm going.

To keep track of it more.

We have a app that Chris created for us that allows us to dot to track to capture document everything that we find in the location where we found it, so that you know, we.

Could put it on a map.

We can see what areas are more active certain times of the year.

Okay, so we have our own like database.

Right where we're you know, documenting, documenting if we find a print, if we find a structure, if we hear a sound, a knock, whatever. So we have our own little database where we're just even dragon all this stuff for future reference. Like I said, so we did identify what places are hot certain times of the year.

So that's that's great that you you are doing it. It sounds like you probably have data from a lot of different parts of Florida. Yes, since you guys are you know, going to multiple different places. But have you ever thought or what is your thought as to what Bigfoot actually is? I know there's there's many different viewpoints in the community about what we are dealing with.

Obviously, ah, you know, a primate creature, I truly flesh and blood. But I really think that they have special abilities that we would consider to be paranormal. Does that make sense, Okay, So let's say the ability to cloak for humans that would be supernatural, the ability to disappear. Right, So, there's orbs associated with bigfoot sightings. You know, we've had EVPs happen while we've been you know, out big footing.

But I so maybe it's possible. You know, just think of chameleons.

You know, if you would have told somebody two hundred years ago, yeah, there's a million that if it stands on a blue piece of paper, it'll turn blue, they would think you're crazy, right, But look at chameleons. They have their masters of camouflage. Whatever they stand on, their skin will change the color to match it. So bigfoots could very well have something like that.

It's interesting to think about. I think there's also some octopus that are able to do that as well.

Absolutely, yes, they'll change their skin color to match the rocks, the coral that they're on.

I mean to imagine a creature the size of a bigfoot having the ability to maybe kind of be like a chameleon in a sort of way. That's that's even more frightening to me. I mean, a massive animal that could just blend into anything. Yeah, it's pretty wild to think about. But I don't it's not out of the question. I don't think anything's.

Out the question.

Anything's possible. Maybe they can turn a certain way in their hair and make it look like they disappear, you know, like a gilli suit or something.

I don't.

I don't know, but I do believe they do have special abilities that, like I said, we would consider paranormal.

Absolutely. Have you have you done any research outside of Florida or are you just sticking inside the state so far.

I'll research wherever I go.

So I did some research in Utah when I went to Phenomicon, the Phenomicon conference over in Vernal, Utah, and I met up with a bigfoot researcher there, and he took us out into the forests outside of Vernal and Yeah,

I'll go out on my own. I'll drive around, or I'll just get out of the car and just start walking.

Is Vernal out by? Is that by the you went to Basin it.

All Skillwalker Ranches?

Okay? I had. I was like, I have a feeling it's close. Wow, that's really interesting. I know those guys are all involved with phenomenon, at least they have been in the last year. Or two. But were you able to go out in that area at all or to go to the ranch?

Right?

No, I wish you can't just walk on? Yeah, who wouldn't want to go Skinwalker Ranch?

Right?

I don't know.

I would be to the gate. Yeah, I've been to the gate. Okay, I've been to the gate.

Cool. Yeah, I don't know that. That freaks me out with the whole U Thomas Winterton, the stuff he went through with it. Yes, he had some serious cranial things going on.

Absolutely, yeah, I had. I walked up.

The reason why I got to go to the gate was I was on I took a I paid for a tour perimeter tour of Skinwalker Ranch, where you drive around the bus with some of the cast members from the show. So I had Dragon on my bus at one point, and then I had Thomas. And Dragon is hilarious on the show. He's all tough and looks mean and stuff, but he's the funniest guy on all the team and he's a coot. He's hilarious and Thomas is wonderful too, So they switched off, so we got to

So yeah, I love I love it there. I love Vernal. But the forest is wonderful. Lots of sasquatch reports.

There absolutely in the woods, the forests outside of Bernal, lots of sasquatch reports.

How far aways are those forests and woods from the ranch area, I don't know.

I would probably get about maybe twenty miles.

Yeah, probably, I just I just love And this is where it's the end of the show where we're kind of rabbit trailing and it's all right because it's a locker ranch. But I love the old story about how they see the portal open up and the big foot type creature comes out of the portal on Skinwalker Ranch. Says that's one of my favorite anecdotal stories. And I mean, you can only imagine and hope that there would be

I think they actually one of the guys, he's one of the ute.

Deputies, the first guys. I think he even captured a vocalization out there of a bigfoot, so a sasquatch. So it's fascinating.

But and when we go to Medaaling Falls, we're going to be spending a week there, so we're going we're going to be going out in the woods every single day. We have some researchers who want to meet up with us and take us out, which is awesome because we know nothing about the area.

I was going to say, hopefully you got some some local researchers. It's it's going to be a little bit different than Florida for sure.

Yes, absolutely, it's going to kill us because we're used to flat land, not mountains. But it's going to be a wonderful time and we're hoping. We already have plans to meet up with a few researchers who want to take us out or they want to meet us for lunch or dinners, so it'll be great.

It'll be really awesome.

That's very cool, Maria. I want to say thank you for hanging out and talking about Bigfoot in skun Capes down in Florida. Thank you for listening to this episode of the Bigfoot Society Podcast. Every encounter we share reminds us that the world is bigger and stranger than we think, and that the truth is often hiding just beyond the