All right, here's a story about a dog man. This man email. This is an older one too. He emailed me quite a ways back. Let's see what he says. I think it's pretty good. I've traveled around the entire lower forty eight states and through five time zones of Canada from the Atlantic to the Pacific Coast offer hiking and photography. I have visited all the big cities, but most of the time I'm in one of the national
parks or state parks or national monuments. Recently, during the winter, my daughter and I headed to Florida for a week or two. The highlight for us was Key West. We spent a couple of days in the Keys, and after getting our fill of beautiful sunsets, we headed back to the mainland. We reached US forty one through the Everglades around midnight and we found a water pumps and we parked under the light pole to kill some time and rest up. After a while, a police car pulled into
the station. I assumed it wanted us and everyone else out, so I started the car again and I pulled onto the road heading west. We wanted to be at Sharp Valley entrance to the Everglades, National Park by sunrise so we could spend the day hiking, and our plan was to pass the entrance and find a safe place to park for a few hours. We drove past Monroe Station
and found a picnic area and we parked. The moon was an upside down crescent sitting far in the east of a black sky full of stars, and after just a few minutes I saw a shooting star. And my daughter had fallen asleep by then, and as I scanned the sky looking for more action in the distance, I saw a light coming our way. I thought it may have been a lightning bug, since in Florida, insects seem a lot bigger than back home in New Jersey. But as I watched it get closer, I realized it wasn't
a lightning bug at all. It was the eye of a ten foot tall monster. It was blazing evil a giant lemon, and sticking out from the head of a beast. I fumbled to reach for the headlights, but my better senses told me not to let this thing know I was there. It moved like it was on roller skates, without the slightest bounce in its step, and it was so big that it would have had to have stooped down to look an elephant in the eye, and it could have ripped the roof off my car and plucked
us like eggs from a basket. But instead it disappeared into the darkness to the east, and I could tell it was on a mission, and I was relieved it didn't involve me and my daughter. At that point, I didn't care about getting any sleep, so I started the car and drove it to the exit and got straight out of there. When morning came, we headed back to the Everglades National Park, and when we passed through Monroe Station again, we saw signs that said don't feed the Bigfoot.
I have repeatedly heard that Bigfoot has red eyes, but the eyes of the creature I saw were blazing fluorescent yellow without any pupils. I'm sure it could see in the dark and must have known my daughter and I were there. I believe it was a dog man, and I told my daughter about it the next morning, and to this day, I'm ridden with guilt that I endangered her life by not getting out of there sooner. It had the chance to confront us, but for some reason
it chose not to. We were lucky it didn't come back with a friend and pick up the car and carry us away to never be seen again. Wow, that's another Florida, Florida's story, I said. When I first started it, it was labeled a dog man's story and the sign said don't fit feed Bigfoot. This is in Florida Monroe Station Everglades National Park. I guess this guy saw a dog man. I wonder if he saw any more detail other than the shape, because it was dark and there
was a crescent man. There wasn't a full moon, and it had big glowing eyes. Man, Man, that is cool, cool story. Thank you to the writer. I hope you guys have gotten over that episode and they're continuing to hike. And did you say you do? Yeah, hiking in photography. He's a photographer, So I hope you're still into that. I really do, And again I appreciate the story. Sir. Here is an email. Oh let me get my mic up here. It was way over there. Here is an
email from a man from the United Kingdom. This is pretty good. It's difficult to know where to start. Really. I'm fifty five and I live in the United Kingdom life and I absolutely love the United States, and I have lost count of how many holidays over the years that we have spent traveling your great nation. My granddad was an American citizen, and he spent many hours telling me stories about his adventures across the Pond. I guess that's where my love for the United States came from.
I've never given Bigfoot much thought while traveling through the national parks over the years, but I've always been open minded about it, and if I'm honest, I would be a person who needed proof. I sort of thought there must be something going on, though otherwise it's the biggest con the world has ever known. Either way, it never deterred me from exploring. I've been traveling to the United States since nineteen eighty nine and I have never had
any encounters, and I've been to over thirty states. Now. Florida has always been somewhere that we've loved, and people mistake it for just the attractions, but it's very much more than that. The wildlife is amazing, and you can find yourself in the middle of nowhere within ten minute drive of serious infrastructure. It was love at first sight, really, and we decided early on that we were going to
spend a lot of time there. In twenty sixteen, in preparation for my retirement, we decided to buy a home in central Florida. I took my son and his wife and two grandchildren with me and we purchased a fabulous home in a gated community in an area called I can't pronounce this point Siana poi n cia na Pointciana. That's the only way I know to say it. And we had a great vacation. The night of the purchase, we sat around celebrating and planning our many family holidays
to come. It was a special time for me, my family around me, A second home in Florida, a place I felt at home in. What more could I ask for. We picked poinsy Ona because it was far enough away from the attractions, but close enough to see them if we felt the urge, you know, for the grandkids and the extended family. And when you see it on Google Earth, it looks like it's in the middle of nowhere, surrounded
by nature, and that's what I wanted. The community had all the amenities that anyone would need, but the most important thing for me was lots of trails in and out of the community. In the UK, you don't get this because houses are not on the verge of while nature like that. It was on one of these trails outside the community that my life changed forever, and not for good by any stretch of the imagination. I've only told this story to my wife and my son and
a few close friends. They thought I was crazy, and they mocked me in a nice way. But it made me realize that people have a hard time accepting this sort of thing. Hell, I've already said that I would need proof, so why would they be any different. My wife refuses to talk about it anymore, and I think she believes me, but the thought of this being true
is too much for her to comprehend. It was five pm on a very warm day in June and I've been doing some minor decorating task on the new home while everyone else had gone to the attractions for the day. I had to get this work completed because I wanted to get the home on the rental market before we left in the next few days to head back to the UK. I was itching to explore, and I thought of myself as a bit of a bushman, at one
with nature and all that. I took some water and went out the back of the property and then headed for the nature area. It was easy to find and easy to transition into what I considered to be wild Florida. There were trails running as far as the eye could see, with a heavy blanket of trees above me and plant and water coverage on either side, and I thought I would take a walk down one of the trails, hoping to see an alligator or maybe a python. I remember
feeling so happy and contented with myself. After all, I had just realized a dream, and the thought of spending lots of time there was almost overwhelming. I had been walking for no more than ten minutes when I heard what can only be described as a low moan coming from my left. I slowed down, and without warning, I stepped out into the trail. And nothing prepares you for this. I don't care what people say. I was absolutely terrified.
It was fifty yards in front of me, and at first I didn't think it saw me because it looked across the trail to the other side. And then it turned its head toward me and followed quickly by its whole body, almost in one motion, and let out what I can only describe as a low, deep, prolonged growl. Now, my wife loved horror films, and I think they're stupid.
Oh my gosh, man, you and I could have a long conversation over horror films sitting in the pub drinking a beer, because my wife likes horror stories and so do my kids, and I think they're stupid. They never scare me because they're so stupid. I'm sorry to digress, y'all. Let's get back to the story. I always say that you would just run if a monster were coming, so I could never take them seriously. But I'm here to
tell you that I couldn't move my legs. They felt like lead, and my blood ran cold in that split second, and my life flashed in front of me, and I was sure I was a dead man. It was as simple as that. I'm six feet two inches tall and i weighed two hundred and twenty pounds, and I'm in good shape. And this thing wasn't much taller than me. But it was white and thick set, and it had the face of a caveman. It must have been five
hundred pounds or more. It had muscle definition and fairly long hair, and it looked at me with what I can only say was contempt. Just as fast as it stepped out, it turned and stepped to the other side of the trail, and it was gone. Well. I turned around, not quite believing what I had just seen, and I started to walk back, looking over my shoulder every few seconds.
Now it sounds strange, but I was physically drained. I could hardly walk, let alone run, And after a few minutes I had to stop and I dropped to my knees and I vomited. I was in absolute mess, and I couldn't believe what had happened. This encounter has had a very negative effect on me. It's opened up a whole new world to me. If Bigfoot exists, then doesn't that mean that other cryptids may exist too? Dog Man ghosts,
things that go bump in the night. I'm gone from being an outgoing person to someone who looks over his shoulder all the time. My wife keeps ponies and I refuse to go and check them in the dark. I have not been back to the US for four years. We're planning a trip to the Smoky Mountains this year, but COVID nineteen put a stop to that, and I'm glad it did. The thought of going to the Smoky Mountains fills me with dread and fear even now, four
years on and with some therapy. In twenty eighteen, I sought help to try to overcome this because it was dominating my life. Obsession is a strong word, but that best describes how I felt about it. There wasn't a week that I didn't have a serious nightmare about this thing, and my life changed that day forever. I was worried that I might be ridiculed, but the therapist was actually brilliant. And the irony is that we Brits think going to therapy is an American thing, but here I am doing it.
The therapist help me come to terms with the encounter. She said that whatever I saw stripped away my innocence. The paradigm I had built up over my life was gone, and the world was a new and scary place. And she helped me look at the encounter as a privilege that many people would love to have. I'm in a bitter place now, but I still need time before I ventured to the US again. And as I said in my garden, gaze up at the night sky, I know they are out there, and some people may have suffered
horrifically at their hands. No matter how much therapy I get, and no matter how many years go by, the look of contempt on this thing's face is something that I'm sure will never leave me. Okay, I read that cold. I didn't expect all that. Now I'm gonna sound redundant here, but this is I have never gotten an email, and he reverences COVID nineteen. So this is a couple of years. I got this email a couple of years ago. I'm getting all of them. I'm getting to him just to
hold on. I got a bunch to do, y'all. So I wonder if he's been back. But I really have never heard of anyone from the UK coming to the US and having an experience like this. I assume this was a bigfoot or what the Floridians people in that area call a skunk. But because he said it wasn't really that big. It was about his same height, but I mean it was big. He said it weighed five hundred pounds. Good grief, and he goes to therapy for it.
That's a good move. You know a lot of people say they listen to different YouTubers to feel better about some I don't know PTSD or whatever from seeing these things. I guess I never really put much stock in that, to be honest, because my son fought in Afghanistan. I don't know if he has PTSD or not. He doesn't talk about it. You know, these guys in war and people who have been through horrible things as opposed to someone just walking up on an unidentified species of animal.
To me, that's two different things. But this email has I think maybe my sensitivity to that may have just clicked up a couple of notches because I can feel this man's tension and the worry in his voice, and his dread of actually coming back to the United States, especially up in the Smokies where there are tons of bigfoot encounter reports and stories and sightings and probably some
video and pictures of what people think are bigfoot. I'm just saying, that's supposedly a realactive area, and it would give them a great environment to live in, you know, good habitat, just like Florida. So this was a kind of an eye opening five and a half, almost six years into this podcast, I got one that actually moved me and to the writer, I think he gives his name. He didn't say no. He said he wants to be anonymous.
But if you hear this, mister United Kingdom, I really appreciate the email, and I hope you've kept your place in Florida because a lot of us go out in the woods every day. We never experience anything like this at all. Matter of fact, the United States, you know, the wilderness in the United States, for the most part, is very safe until you get out west and you've got big predators like bears and big cats. And still people hike it. They hike it, they go camping out there,
and some people get eaten by bears. Even in the Smoky Mountains, people get injured or some people get killed by black bears there for the most part, you know, especially the southeastern United States. I never go with a gun. I don't. Somebody asked me that recently. They said, what do you carry when you go in the woods. I'm like, I'm not carrying that weight in the woods. I mean, I have a I'm not going to talk about my firearms, but I have plenty of handguns, and even the smallest
one adds weight to my hip. And I just don't like it, and I don't need it. I mean, the most dangerous animal iversy is maybe a cotton mouth or a People say you need to watch out for codies and stuff. Every cody I've ever seen in my life, and I've seen a bunch of them. They just run away from me. They don't bother me. Maybe a pack of curved dogs might be a problem, but I've run up on those before too, and they just run off.
So the United States is a pretty safe place, a lot more dangerous than England in the British Isles and England, Scotland, Ireland and probably most of Europe is so populated and so short on wilderness that you know, a lot of the predators are probably gone. I don't really know. I don't know. I know that about England because they crave to be in the people in England loved to go to the wilderness, and especially here in the United States.
I'll quit rambling. I just I can't get over how moved I was by this man's email, and I really appreciating it. I really appreciate him sitting it, so thank you, sir. Okay, we'll end this podcast up with a bigfoot story. I went on a long walk with my friends Wes, Sean, and Randy in an area of wilderness between Abernathy and Salmon Creek in Cowlitz County, Washington. Knowing what awaited us, we were armed with a Magnum revolver and high powered rifles.
The day before, Sean had been out here looking for fossils when he found a huge barefoot track twenty inches across. He knew exactly what kind of creature made the track, and he was set on going back to get a cast of it. Each of us has had experiences with
bigfoot in one way or another since middle school. I've read every book on bigfoot that I can find, and based on my years of studying the subject and the experiences of people close to me, I have no doubt that it is real, and I'm open with folks about my beliefs. My friend Sean had his own experience five years earlier near the Bridge of the Gods where the Sasquat shook his camper, and our friend Randy saw a bigfoot cross a two lane highway late at night in
just three steps. We didn't want to go alone and unarmed, and Sean invited Randy and me to go back with him to make the cast of this perfect print. Sean's stepdad Wes, is a dentist with an open mind. Now that doesn't say dentist, it says dentiist. Is that somebody who makes dentiers denturist, dentiists de n t u r ist. Anyway, I'm hung up on that. Sorry about that. His stepdad West is a denterious with an open mind and a
three hundred wind mag rifle. He came along too. As soon as we crossed into the Warehouser timberlands, we heard heavy footsteps parallel to us, made by something walking on two feet, and we exchanged some cautious glances, but decided to tread on. We falled a game trail Sean had marked for about three hours until we got to the print, and then we marked around it with an orange survey or tape. Sean mixed the dental casting compound that West
supplied and made a good mold of the print. He lifted it up and we started commenting on how detailed and defined it was. When a scream came from the woods a little too close to our location. The hair on our bodies started to rise and we knew we had worn out our welcome. We turned around and walked out of there as fast as we could, hearing the heavy bipedal footsteps parallel to us again, and they paced
us the whole way back. I've heard many times that this is rare for these creatures to show themselves to groups of armed men. Some say they can smell the metal or the gun ole. I don't really know, but if it had charged, we certainly had enough firepower between us to knock him down. He must have known we were dangerous because he kept just out of sight but close enough to make sure that we were leaving his backyard. The loggers know sasquatch are real from the Pacific northwest
all the way down to Arizona and New Mexico. They see and hear things that would keep most folks up at night. They know a lot, and if you're lucky enough to get these guys to talk, they have some incredible stories to share. Oh that was a good story they got. This guy was a I guess that mean denteroust. He's had casting compound for the they use on teeth to do the to do the track print. I'm not sure how the loggers came into that there at the end,
but it doesn't matter. It's he just knows. He knows, he's probably heard some stories from loggers and that's why he put that in there. But this was a really good story, and I'm I'm glad. I don't know why that caught my attention. He has an open he's a dangerous with an open mind, and a three hundred win mag rifle. Does it have a scope on it? That's all I want to know. Brother. This was a good This was a good story. I enjoyed reading it. I
appreciate you sending it. Kind of a short podcast. I didn't have a lot of time today to do this, to make a long one, and I thought i'd get something out because these were really good stories. In the next two or three podcasts may be less than thirty minutes long, and I'm gonna keep cranking them out until I till I land some work. So I'm having fun, all right, See you guys on the next one. Thanks again.