S19 Ep24: Campfire Chronicles - The MAU Camp Out (Sn. 19 Ep. 24)
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Good evening and welcome to Monsters Among Us.

I'm your guide, Derek Hayes. Do you hear that? The wind rustling through the trees, the slight crackle of the campfire, and the animals of the night singing their song. Now grab yourself a log or a lawn chair, cozy up here to the fire, and up yourself to a marshmallow or two, and settle in, because tonight we are going camping.

Welcome to a very special campfire edition of Monsters Among Us. I'll be your camp host and your storyteller here this evening. And tonight we're taking the show off the beaten path. Into the woods, up on the mountain, down by the lake and out in the parks. Into the wild and into the dark corners of our natural world. Welcome to the very first MAU Campout.

A collection of listener-submitted encounters with the supernatural, the paranormal, and the unexplained. All set against the backdrop of the great outdoors. So grab your flashlight, zip up your tent, and keep some firewood on the flames. Because as you're about to find out, in the forest, you're never really alone. And for this special episode, we begin with a call from Wolfgang in California.

who shares a chilling account about his own brush with something deep in the forest. Welcome to the show, Wolfgang. Hey, Derek. This is Wolfgang. I'm calling from the central coast of California, just north of Oro Bay. But this event took place in southern Oregon, near the Oregon border, in the Fremont-Winima National Forest area.

back in August of 2007. I was camping with my family before heading to relatives on the Klamath River. And we always take our kids out to the wilderness areas before we visit relatives in that area. And this was a new location for us. It was about 15 miles off the paved road at a campground at a lake. And basically what happened was, and I can't explain it, but it was one of the most terrifying moments of my life ever camping.

Went down to the lake with my oldest and just kind of watching the sunset. And we heard a scream on the far side of the lake start up. And roadless area. There's no cars in the campground. It's completely deserted. We heard this scream start up. And I looked at my kid and I was like, oh, this is going to be great. She's going to hear a bobcat screaming or a fox. And it started out just almost like a sound like a woman screaming.

And then it kind of morphed into a guy. It was like a man just yelling at the top of his lungs. And I looked down at my watch and it's been like 15 seconds. And then it went into a howl that lasted another 15 seconds. So a whole half minute. And I'm, you know, experienced in the back country. There are a lot of different animals and animals.

Nothing like this. So I played it off like it was, you know, a fox and an elk bugling and, you know, just didn't want to freak anybody out. But inside I was terrified. I was like, what in the hell was that, you know? So anyway, fast forward to dinner time. Mosquitoes started coming out. So everybody piles into the van to go to sleep. And I went out in my one-man tent. So I calmed right out. I'm totally tired. And all of a sudden I wake up. I feel like it's been 15 minutes.

but I looked at my watch and it's 03:30 in the morning. Pitch black except for a little bit of moonlight, but not much. And I hear footsteps and it's crunching on the Forest Service Road and I was like, "Oh great, here's some tweakers wanting to whip off a campsite." So I lifted up on my shoulder and I kind of trying to listen to what was going on and I could hear mumbling. It was almost like a foreign language. It sounded like, you know, Russian or Slavic or something.

It was just this mumbling back and forth. And I couldn't figure out what was going on. And I started to get freaked out. And so I had a folding knife and I kind of folded it real slow and it clicked when it locked in place. And that sound was so loud because there was no sound at all in the forest. Everything was dead quiet. Whatever, whoever it was or whatever it was completely went dead silent. And then I could kind of hear faint footsteps going by me really fast.

And as I lifted up to look out, I was looking at the lake. Within five seconds, I could see something. It was massive. I mean, it was at least based on a branch that I referenced the next morning, at least 6'8 to 7' tall, because I'm 6'2, and it was about a foot higher than me. And I thought at first it was a bear with a bear cub on its back, but...

There was no way. I mean, there's no way a bear could cover 38 yards in less than 5-10 seconds like that. And I saw it for maybe 5 seconds and it was that classic look. It kind of had huge shoulders and I couldn't make out any details. I couldn't even see if it had hair. But I just know whatever it was, it was massive.

moving fast through a brush that took me and my kid five minutes to cross that was there in 10, 15 seconds silent. And it looked like it was on one of those floating things you see in movies where a body is totally straight. There was no stride to it and it was gone.

and I didn't hear anything beyond that. My heart was pounding out of my chest. I laid awake the rest of the night, and I woke up and looked for any kind of tracks. It was too rocky. There was no tracks or anything. But anyway, yeah, most terrifying camping session of my life. And every time I go out into the wilderness now,

Thank you, Wolfgang. You know, I was part of the Wolfgang once. But then... They kicked me out. Sorry. I'm so sorry about that. Anyway, like I said...

Thank you, Wolfgang. What a way to kick off tonight's campout. Now that strange gibberish that Wolfgang reported hearing, that sounds very similar to a Sasquatch-related phenomena many call samurai chatter. It almost sounds like a language, and it almost sounds human. But if the reports are to be believed, that's not the case.

Now, I know I go to this resource often, but it's really one of the best sources of alleged Bigfoot audio out there. The Sierra Sounds, recorded by Ron Moorhead and Alan Barry back in the early 1970s. Now, Moorhead and several friends would camp out in a shelter that they built somewhere between Lake Tahoe and Yosemite National Park. That's when they began to notice large 19-inch footprints in the dirt.

Just outside the shelter. On one of their camping trips, Moorhead brought with him a reel-to-reel tape recorder. That's when he captured the following audio. Audio that would later be known as samurai chatter amongst the community. What are you trying to talk to us? What?

Imagine hearing that outside your tent on a lonely night up in the mountains.

And I do imagine that what Wolfgang heard sounded awfully similar to this. And for him to see a large creature of some sort just after hearing it, those are all the ingredients to a great Bigfoot story. So we thank you again, Wolfgang, not only for the story, but for kicking us off here tonight. All right, folks, I need to take a quick break, but I have much more MAU campout when I return.

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Our listeners get 10% off their first month at BetterHelp.com forward slash M-A-U. Again, that's BetterHelp, H-E-L-P dot com forward slash M-A-U. Now, speaking of Bigfoot, this next entry takes place in a well-known Bigfoot hotspot. But believe it or not, it doesn't involve the big fella.

Our caller in California experienced something that might even be more strange than that. Please welcome Anonymous to the program. Hi, I'm going to be anonymous today from California. So I'm writing to record my experience at my then boyfriend's cabin in the Shaver Lake area in California.

His family had owned a cabin there for many years and in the summer of 1987, I was invited to spend a few days. To get there, we drove for hours on winding, increasingly forested and narrow roads. I had never been to this area of California despite being a native and I was very excited to be there. It was a very isolated and rugged area.

In the early 1900s, it had been a logging area with a mill, and it is in the middle of the Sierra Nevada range. It was a lovely, comfortable home, and we were there with my boyfriend's entire family. Mom, dad, aunts, grandparents, and a few family friends. Since it was a full house, a few of us around five were going to sleep on the large wraparound deck on Cotts.

It is just beautiful, set in the middle of a heavily wooded forest, which overlooks the deck. The dense pine forest was merely a few feet away right off the deck. The sky was incredible. I had never been to a place with such little light pollution and where you could see what felt like every star in the sky. I saw my very first shooting star.

The weather was mild with no wind or clouds. It was so quiet and peaceful and soon conversations stopped and everyone started drifting off to sleep. My boyfriend and I were on cots right next to each other with me facing out toward the forest and him facing me toward the house. He had just drifted off to sleep when I gradually became aware that there was a perfectly round light on the trunk of the closest pine tree.

If I had leaned over the railing, I could have touched the tree. That's how close it was. I was so relaxed and nearly asleep myself when I realized that my mind had registered it as a flashlight. But it dawned upon me that there was no beam. The circle was flat, bright yellow in color, and large. A little larger than a dinner plate, and it was completely still.

I realized that it could not have been caused by a flashlight because it was so very dark that I certainly would have been able to see some kind of beam leading to it. I wasn't afraid right then, but very curious. My next thought was that it was some kind of car headlight. But besides the fact that there was only one crisply outlined flat circle, I realized that it was so intensely quiet that I would have certainly heard the sound of a car.

By now, my sleepiness had faded, and I was intensely curious about what it could be. I woke up my boyfriend and told him to turn around and look at it. As soon as he did, it disappeared. At first, I laughed and thought how strange it was. Everyone else was sound asleep, both in the house and on the deck, so we were speaking in whispers, and I was very conscious about not wanting to wake anyone. He rolled back over and began drifting off again when the light came back.

There was absolutely nothing preceding its appearance. There was no sound, no additional movements of light. It was just very suddenly there again. I smacked my boyfriend's shoulder and whispered, look, the same thing happened. It disappeared the second he turned his head. By now, my heart was pounding and I no longer found it funny. This repeated itself over and over half a dozen times until I began to loudly hyperventilate and cry.

Now, mind you, I was young and self-conscious on vacation with my boyfriend's family, trying to make a good impression. The last thing I wanted was to make a scene and wake up absolutely everyone. But that is exactly what I did. I felt crazed. I felt like this light was mocking me. I was so hysterical that his mom and grandma very kindly guided me into the house and made a little nest for me because there was absolutely no way I was going to stay out there.

The entire house was in an uproar by now, and it was clear that no one had been pulling a prank. They weren't like that anyway. Or they would have immediately fessed up to calm me down. I'm normally a very calm person who does not like to draw any attention to myself, but I was completely unable to control my terror. I can't think of any other time in my life, and I'm nearly 60 now, that I have ever been in that state.

After a mostly sleepless night, the next day, my boyfriend's mom and aunt explained to me that the cabin had a poltergeist. They had not mentioned that to me because they didn't want to scare me. I've been a listener for a very long time, and I've listened to nearly all the episodes, and I'm a Patreon as well, but I've never heard of anything like this. The stories about orbs are close, but this entity was not 3D. It was totally flat.

How strange is that? Thank you, caller, for ringing in. You know, if the light disappeared every time the boyfriend moved...

I wonder if the light wasn't somehow reflecting off of him. And when he shifted, the reflection was lost. And when he returned to his sleeping position, it came back. On paper, that makes perfect sense to me. But what light source would it be reflecting? And what would it be reflecting off of there on the boyfriend's body? Or, for that matter, what was it reflecting onto?

Now as much sense as it makes on paper, I don't think it explains this mystery away. But the caller's mention of a poltergeist adds an interesting twist to the tale. Up until that point in the story, I thought for sure this was either some naturally occurring phenomena, or it was a UFO. I did not have poltergeist on my bingo card. But I thoroughly enjoyed the story, caller. And I have a friend with a cabin up in Shaver Lake.

So next time I get an invite, I'll be sure to go just to see if I can find this light for myself. Until then, thanks again, caller, for sharing. Now, folks, if you have a story you would like to have me share here on the show, here's what you got to do. Call our toll-free 24-7 hotline, toll-free in the U.S. at least.

And that number is 888-608-NIGHT. Again, that's 888-608-N-I-G-H-T. Or you can record your story using the voice memo app on your phone and email it to me at monstersamonguspodcast at gmail.com. Now don't forget about those pesky rules. Call from a quiet place. No moving vehicles. One story per call. But you can call in again and again if you have more tales to tell.

And if you get cut off, there is a 5 minute limit per call. Just call back in and pick right back up where you left off. You don't even have to reintroduce yourself. We know who you are. Now of course, you can only call a story in once. Unless we ask you to do otherwise. And most importantly, true stories only. And don't forget that we're again accepting stories from the 18 and under crowd.

to submit those tales for Monsters Among Us Junior. Just dial 833-MAU-KIDS. We're dying to hear from you. Now, speaking of dying, I'm dying to get back into the action. So let's dive right in with Mark's entry from North Dakota. Hi, Derek. This is Mark, and I'm calling from North Dakota. In 2006...

I was on a class trip during the summer through Yosemite Park. And there were about 20 of us and we were in tents. There were two other people with me in that tent. And during the middle of the night, there was something outside the tent. And I'm assuming it was a bear.

And I just decided to play dead. I just didn't make a noise. I just laid still. And eventually it went away. I could feel that it was right next to me on the other side of the tent. It was like curious. You know, I'm not sure how I knew. I just, I heard the noises. It was like it was bouncing around in the dirt.

I mean, it wasn't somebody walking. I just felt like it was in the dirt a lot, but it was large because it was making a lot of noise. It just felt like it was curious. It was just out there, you know, poking around and it just went away. And then in the morning, you know, I asked, I'm like, did you guys hear that?

And they said no. And I'm just thinking, how could you not hear that? I mean, it was loud and it was, I mean, I'm the only one that heard that. And we were not the only tent. There were like at least 10, if not more tents in a circle. I mean, there was no sign of anything. There was nobody else noticed that. It just seemed really weird to me that it was just a bear. Thank you.

Thanks Mark for calling in. Now I hate to burst any bubbles here, but I've been to Yosemite a number of times. I've even climbed Half Dome twice. And I can tell you that place is crawling with bears. Black bears, to be exact. They can grow up to 250 pounds, and they are found in abundance, not only in Yosemite, but throughout the Golden State.

estimates suggest there are as many as 400 bears in Yosemite at any given time. So again, I hate to burst your bubble here Mark, but it very likely could have been a bear. But that's not to say that a Sasquatch sighting is impossible, because it's happened in that area before. Back in August of 2017, a couple had an experience on BLM land just outside Yosemite's borders. Here is the gist of that experience.

The witness and his fiancée were camping on BLM land due to a difficulty reserving a campsite. On their first night, just after a heavy rainfall, they encountered what appeared to be a massive, upright creature. A creature they initially thought to be a bear that was rummaging through their trash. The creature seemed to move on, but later the same night, it approached their tent again, this time touching it and making heavy breathing noises.

And that's when the ex-fiance panics and sets off the alarm on their car, just feet away, sending the creature running into the darkness. Now the next day, another camper reported a similar strange experience, including large handprints all over his vehicle.

Now I've linked to that full report in tonight's show notes, along with a dozen other links pertaining to tonight's stories. So go to MonstersAmongUsPodcast.com and click the show notes tab to take a look. So bear or beast, either way, Mark, I bet it made for a restless evening. And we thank you for sharing your tale. What's happening, brothers? How y'all doing? Doing good.

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That was a portion of the brand new song from Australian star and listener of the program, Reese Mastin. Now, Reese was kind enough to send his new single over for us to check out.

And I've linked to the full song over in the show notes. Amazing stuff, Rhys. Thank you for spreading the word about UFOs. And thank you for sharing your music here with us. And speaking of UFOs, it's time for another camping story. And this time we focus our gaze skyward. Please welcome Eli, all the way from Arizona.

Hey Derek, this is Eli. I'm originally from Southern California, just down the hill from you in Redlands, but now I live in Flagstaff and that is where this story takes place. It was late August of 2020.

Me and my friends just finished up our first week of classes at NAU up here in Flagstaff. And we all decided that we wanted to go camping. We were pretty cooped up due to, you know, in-person restrictions due to the pandemic. And so we were itching to get outside and hang out because...

indoor gatherings of like, you know, five or more people or whatever were banned from like student housing near campus and on campus. So we went out on a Friday afternoon once we were all done with class. We were out at a spot maybe 10 miles past Snow Bowl.

It was a super nice day. It was warm. There was a light breeze. And there was not a single cloud in the sky when we got there. We were drinking beers, smoking other stuff. I'm sure you can imagine what I'm talking about. And just overall having a good time. I didn't know, but that night there was zero moon. So it was super crazy dark once the sun fell. And we had a long, hot summer night.

in Flagstaff. So there were fire restrictions in the forests around us that year. So we couldn't have a campfire. But that just led to super, super good stargazing. The Milky Way was out. It was beautiful. There was like a distant thunderstorm over south that we were watching. And once that went away, we started looking up.

We saw a bunch of shooting stars, you know, the typical satellites, stuff like that. The Milky Way was super clear that night. And suddenly, I was the first one to start seeing it. There was three lights in the sky. They're about the size of a satellite, moving about maybe a little faster than your typical satellite going east to west. And at first, I was just confused, like thinking, like, oh, I've never seen three satellites that close together before.

And as my eyes started to focus in on them, I could see that they were braiding in and out of each other. Imagine just braiding hair, but these satellites were weaving in and out of each other. And...

I pointed it out to my friends, and about three of us, I think maybe even four of us saw it. And we were all just freaking out. It was super cool. I had never seen anything like that before. And then eventually some of the girls that we were with came back from being in the woods or whatever and, you know, shining their flashlights in our face. And we lost focus on it. But, yeah, that's my story. So thanks a lot. You're the man, Derek. Peace.

Thank you, Eli. Now, Arizona is no stranger to unidentified flying anomalies. It ranks fourth in states as far as sightings are concerned, according to the National UFO Reporting Center, at least. And it's home to all sorts of infamous UFO encounters, such as the Paradise Valley Flap of the 1940s, the Kingman Crash of the 1950s, the Travis Walton Abduction of 1975, and

And of course, the Phoenix Lights event back in 1997. There's a lot of action there in the Copper State. And it sounds like Eli here was briefly part of all that. Now, we could not find any similar reports from the Flagstaff area. So whatever this thing was, it seemed to have been a one-off. Regardless, it was a great submission, Eli. And we thank you again for calling in. Now, time for a bit of a ghostly encounter.

Please welcome Rose from the state of Oregon. Hi Derek and Monsters Among Us. This is Rose in Oregon.

This is a camp story. This takes place last weekend at Camp Whispering Winds in Oregon. And I was there because I was attending the Girl Scouts of Oregon and Southwest Washington's annual meeting the following day as a delegate. And they offered us the opportunity to stay at the camp for free if we were coming from out of town. But only two of us showed up to take them up on their offer, me and one other lady.

but they assigned us each to different lodges on opposite sides of the lake from one another. So I was by myself in one of the oldest buildings on the camp, completely alone. And the lodge was full of old maps and artifacts from when it was constructed and dedicated in 1966 and 67. So it had a very old, tiny camp feel. I went to bed in the bunk room after it got dark, and I was sure to lock all of the outer doors

But in the early morning, as I usually do, I woke up to use the restroom. And when I was lying back down to try to get back to sleep, I was just starting to nod off when I heard the sound of what sounded like a kid in bare feet running around on the hardwood floor. So I sat up and listened, thinking I must have been hearing things. But then I heard it again.

like there was just a little kid running around out in the main part of the lodge. And the footsteps kind of got farther away, like they were running further away and then closer, like they were running closer to my closed door, the door of the bunk room. And then I heard the voice of a young girl, not a little girl, but maybe like a 10 to 12-year-old girl say, "'How you doing, cowgirl?' which I thought was a very outdated thing to say."

And after hearing the voice, I decided to get up out of my sleeping bag and I went out into the lodge to investigate, thinking, who the hell is in here and how did they get in here? And I walked around the whole great room and through the hall and I looked on the veranda in the back that overlooked the lake and in the bathroom and out on the front porch and there was no one there.

I decided to just brush it off, and I locked all the doors again, and I went back into the bunk room and laid back down to go back to sleep. And I didn't hear anything for the rest of the night. So that is my very brief little potentially ghost encounter at Camp Whispering Winds. I love your show, Derek. You guys are doing amazing work. Thanks. Bye. Thank you, Rose. How you doing, cowgirl? What a weird phrase to hear.

And I agree, Rose. It does sound a bit old-fashioned, doesn't it? Certainly not something you'd expect to hear from a modern-day Girl Scout. At least I wouldn't think. And speaking of the Scouts, Rose's entry isn't the only time the Scouts are mentioned here this evening. Which makes sense, given that this is a campout episode. We also have this entry from Dalton in South Carolina, in which a Scout comes face-to-face.

was something unexplainable. Hey, this is Dalton from South Carolina, and I just wanted to share a story with you. So I was in Boy Scouts with my cousin, and we were camping out in Barnwell, South Carolina. Just a normal night, you know, normal duties, you know, hiking and setting up tents and this and that and the other. We started to close in on the night, the fire's dying down, and we call it a night so everyone gets in their sleeping bags.

Me and my cousin were in the same tent, and it was around 1230, like a cool 65 degrees, no wind. You could hear the crickets, owls out there. You know, you could just really hear nature. And I woke up because I had to go to the bathroom. And right before I went to go unzip the tent to go out, I heard rustling in the bushes, and I didn't really think much of it.

And it started to get louder and louder and closer and closer. So I stood back and I unzipped the side of the tent so we can, you know, peer through and look. And I couldn't see anything. It was pitch black dark. The fire had died out, so I had no light whatsoever. And I didn't want to flash my light out there because, you know, I was probably 12, so I was pretty terrified at the time.

And right before the area where we were camping out, it was like an open field type deal. I could see just a large figure at the edge of the woods just watching, just looking at us. Like it was enough to scare me enough to wake my cousin up. And he woke up and he saw it. And he was like, what is that, dude? I was like, I don't know, but I have to pee and I do not want to get out of this tent right now.

So we kind of just stood there and we were really frozen at the time. We couldn't really move. And eventually it just backed off. But as soon as it backed off, that smell hit us. It was the worst smell ever. It smelled like marsh, like sulfur coming out the marsh mixed with like a skunk. It was just god-awful.

Needless to say, I did not use the bathroom that night. Yeah, so I just want to share my story with you. Good work with the podcast. But yeah, have a good day. Thank you, Dalton. You'll hear that same detail throughout the night. Folks that have to relieve themselves but are too terrified to slip outside their tent flap. Now, you guys do know that Amazon sells a portable urinal for both men and women. And it's less than $10. It might keep you from getting eaten.

by whatever the hell visited Dalton there that night. But before we move on tonight, I couldn't help but notice a number of parallels between Dalton's call and another Boy Scout run-in with a skunk ape-esque creature. I first heard about this account from a TV show I enjoyed from the early part of the century, Monsters and Mysteries in America. So here are the highlights of that event, courtesy of that television program.

In March 1961, Charles Volz was on Gilchrest Island. He was a junior scout leader with advanced wilderness skills and badges to prove it. Nothing could have prepared him for what he was about to encounter. While everybody else was bedded down for night about 11:30, I decided to take my evening walk, as I always did, down the center track of the island.

It was a wonderfully cool evening, no rain and a lot of moonlight. About halfway back, I decided to take a shortcut and came upon a clearing. And in the clearing, I approached a stump. I had planned to either walk around it or step over it.

It stood up to be at least my height, perhaps more. I had no idea really where I was. It stood up looking directly at me and it was covered with hair smelling like foul odor of a roadkill.

I do not do anything. I stand perfectly still, mostly because I couldn't move anyway. I was pretty frightened at the time. All time kept its eyes straight on me, and when its body got around to a position where it could run, it did so. About two or three bounds, it had cleared that 30-foot area, and I could hear it for quite some time in the palmettos before that sound stopped.

Now, Gilchrist Island is there along the Gulf of Mexico, about as far east in Alabama as you can get, right there on the Florida line. So I guess if you're a scout of any kind, keep your eyes open out there, pay attention to what your nose tells you, and watch out for any walking stumps. Thank you again, Dalton, for sharing that unsettling entry.

Now folks, I have more monster stories and more strangeness to share just on the other side of this break. I'll be right back. Now, go ahead and get yourselves comfortable. We have a long way to go before lights out on tonight's MAU campout. And trust me when I say that things are only going to get more strange from here on out.

Take Rachel's submission, for example. She's calling in from North Carolina. Hi Derek, this is Rachel in North Carolina. In 2017, my friend and I and her dog went backpacking in the Shining Rock Wilderness in western North Carolina. We didn't plan the backpacking trip that well and we ended up getting to our campsite after dark. So we ended up

making camp in the dark and it was kind of a disorganized experience. Not ideal. But the campsite was in a little glade off of the main trail and so it's pretty well surrounded by trees. We made a campfire and we were eating dinner and having a couple drinks around it. When we heard this noise on the periphery of our campsite,

It sounded something like a cross between a cat and a bird, but it was like nothing I had ever heard before. And my mind immediately went to a mountain lion. I had heard that they, you know, made very strange noises, and it just, something about it struck me as a predatory noise. And of course, this terrified me.

And my friend, who has much more experience outdoors than I do, also at the time thought that it was a mountain lion. She was a little more level-headed in her reaction to it than I was, but we were both very afraid. And the only thing that really made us feel okay was that we had a dog near us, so we just kind of hoped that it wouldn't approach us any closer. But we heard that noise several times.

with, you know, some time passing in between, but it sounded like it was starting to circle at camp, you know, and it was very close. We did manage to sleep that night. We weren't camping in a tent. We were sleeping in hammocks. So we felt very exposed and very nervous. And again, you know, our only comfort was the dog. But nothing happened throughout the night. We were all right. And when we got back, my friend and I researched

the noise that we heard. I looked up bobcat noises. I also listened to mountain lion noises, and I can confirm that what we heard was a mountain lion noise. And this is particularly significant for this area because we've been told in North Carolina that mountain lions are gone from this area. They've gone extinct, you know, east of the Mississippi. So this would stand to contradict that.

Additionally, I have family members who claim to have seen mountain lions on their farm in South Carolina, which, you know, is not very mountainous where they live. I don't know if they necessarily only live in mountains, but...

Thank you, Rachel.

And that's why you always practice putting your tent up in the yard. That way you're familiar with the process. No matter what the conditions are, come camp time. Now as for those strange noises, you hear all kinds of crazy things out there in the woods, Rachel. Including big cats, both known and unknown. Especially in your neck of the woods. Because over on the other side of the Tar Heel State, there is a legendary big cat creature.

that has been terrorizing the community for nearly a century. On the southeastern edge of the North Carolina Piedmont lies the small town of Bladenboro. Incorporated in 1903, Bladenboro is a snapshot of small-town America. In the 1950s, the community faced a unique threat.

A series of strange animal attacks that struck fear and panic amongst the townspeople and left an enduring mystery in its wake. The goat was laying down like this and the tip end of his nose was bit off. He believed in the beast of Bladenboro and it was not a mountain lion or coyotes or anything but that it was a far larger predator. I know one fellow here

He's 94 years old and he was right in the middle of all this, the hunting and all the people coming from all over the country here to kill the beast. It was a scary time for Bladenboro. It terrorized everybody in Bladenboro, pretty much. I mean, it scared people. It was a panicked, fearful environment. Now that was actually a trailer for a documentary on the subject aptly named The Beast of Bladenboro. Check out the show notes for the link.

And from what I understand, these attacks continue to this day. Although the location of each killing is now spread out to include half of the state, including areas where Rachel had her experience. So it certainly sounds like Rachel encountered something, a known animal, an out-of-place big cat, or a vampire beast. I'll let you decide. Either way, thank you again, Rachel, for sharing the call.

All right, folks, next up, we venture to the PNW. Please welcome Sean from Oregon. Hey, Derek and the amazing Monsters Among Us crew. My name is Sean from Portland, Oregon. This is a story of camping out by Mount Adams in Washington State. I was with my daughter. She was six years old at the time, so it must have been 2021.

Anyway, we were camping at a campground just east of the mountain. And we were laying in hammocks just looking up at the stars at night. And all of a sudden, this quiet ball of light floats over top of us towards the mountain. And I thought it was the space station at first. And so I was like, oh, look at the space station. And then it was the space station.

And then all of a sudden, just after I said that, another ball of light, same size and brightness, comes flying up behind it and then slows down and goes the same speed, just following behind it towards the mountain. And it went behind the tree line, so I couldn't see it after that. But anyway, I was telling a friend about that just last summer, actually.

And he calls me like a week later and says, oh, hey, I was talking to another friend of mine. And he told me that he also saw the same thing, but from a different vantage point. He saw two balls of light fly towards the mountain. And when they got to the mountain, this is what he said, something opened up in the mountain area.

and they both flew into the mountain. So yeah, I was pretty amazed by that. But anyway, that's the story I have camping at Mount Adams over in Washington. It was pretty amazing. Scared the **** out of my daughter. She started crying and I had to kind of console her about that. It really freaked her out. But for me, I was pumped. I thought it was pretty awesome.

Anyway, I think it's rare that people get to see those things, so it made me pretty happy. But anyway, thank you, and I hope you guys have a great day. Thank you, Sean. You know, this glowing orb phenomena really seems to be growing in frequency lately, but we'll touch more on that here in just a moment. First, it's awfully coincidental that Mount Adams was the backdrop for Sean's experience.

because it's also the backdrop for the very first contemporary UFO sighting to be taken seriously. On June 24th, 1947, Kenneth Arnold was flying from Chehalis, Washington to Yakima, Washington in a Col Air A2 on a business trip. He made a brief detour, learning of a $5,000 reward

for the discovery of the U.S. Marine Corps C-47 transport airplane that had crashed somewhere near Mount Rainier. A few moments before 3 p.m., at about 9,200 feet in altitude, near Mineral, Washington, Arnold began to notice a bright flashing light similar to sunlight reflecting from a mirror. The following is the rest of his account in his own words.

At this point is when I would say approximately is where I had this terrific flash hit the air. My aircraft lit up the inside of my aircraft and I assumed of course at the time in a split second that it was probably a P-51 fighter that it dove over my nose and that it was the sun's reflecting upon his bright wing surfaces that caused it.

However, before I gathered my wits together, I looked way off here to the north, and then when I saw where the flash came from, it was an enchilada formation of very peculiar-looking aircraft, and they were rapidly approaching Mount Rainier, and it was at about this point when I got here I could see their tail surfaces, or the rear end of them, and the second craft from the rear had a more or less crescent shape,

and it had a hole in the center of it. And of course I kept mulling in my mind, I said, damn, this is the look of an airplane I ever saw. I looked at my sweep secondhand on my 24-hour clock, and they had covered this distance of approximately 50 miles in a minute and 42 seconds. It was placing their speed at approximately 1,700 miles an hour, 1,781 it came out at that distance, which was, of course, unheard of in 1947.

Now that clip from Arthur C. Clarke's Mysterious World from back in 1980. And like I said, the voice you heard was Kenneth Arnold himself. He actually passed away a few years after conducting this interview. Anyway, the craft that he stumbled upon that day were traveling past Mount Rainier toward Mount Adams, the very place where Sean had his experience.

And I also find it interesting that the same trope keeps popping up about Mount Adams. That there's a secret UFO base inside the mountain. Not only that, but there seems to be some sort of mechanical doorway in which these mysterious objects enter and exit. That doorway being a focal point of many of these legends. Now the popular television program Expedition X even did an episode on the mountain

and the supposed doorway. These days, people in the Mount Adams area report aerial anomalies almost every night.

Strange lights in the sky that float and flicker above the mountain, but also lights that seem to disappear into the mountain. More recently, radio host and researcher Jimmy Church has made a provocative claim, capturing images of what he believes could be a mechanical opening built into the side of Mount Adams. There is a rectangular hangar door that is open. Guessing from here, it's got to be a couple of hundred feet wide by maybe a hundred feet tall.

Now, he actually dug up a video from Jimmy Church, essentially highlighting the moment this alleged doorway was first discovered. And you can find a link to that in tonight's show notes. So in short, historically, Mount Adams is a place synonymous with UFOs. And if one investigator's claims are correct, it's also a secret base for them as well. Thank you again, Sean, for taking the time to share your experience.

Now folks, I have much more to share with you here tonight, so don't go anywhere. Now at this point, I know what you're thinking. I'm never going camping again. But you know there are other activities that put you in the woods. Just ask Matias. He's calling in from Canada.

Hey Derek, my name is Matthias. I live in British Columbia, Canada. This story took place in Kamloops, British Columbia, which is a town that's a few hours away from where I am now. I moved some years ago. This story took place in the summer when I was 15 or maybe 14. I'm 18 now.

It happened while my buddy and I were having a sleepover and we were just doing the typical sleepover things, staying up ridiculously late and playing video games and whatever. And as we're just hanging out, he says, hey, we should go on a sunrise hike. And I was like, oh, dude, yeah, that's like a great idea. And the neighborhood that my house was on was kind of on the foothills of this mountain.

And so behind my house was just straight woods and straight mountains.

I love to hike. I love being outdoors. And so I've been up there tons of times. I was like, yeah, bro, let's go up to this mountain here and look at the sunrise. So, you know, we got our chairs and some snacks and our backpacks and just started up. It was about a two hour long hike to get to the top. So we left around 2.30 so that we could get to the top, get ourselves set up so we could watch the sunset and take photos and whatnot.

And so, you know, we begin hiking. It's pitch dark out. There's no moon, but we can see stars. But because the city or the town, you know, it's a decent size as far as British Columbia goes. And it's about 90,000 people. So the light pollution took out much of the stars. So it really wasn't that well lit where we were walking. And as we're walking, probably walk for around maybe an hour,

And we come to this meadow we're clearing, and I've been there tons of times. And so we just, you know, look around, and it's a really beautiful night, nice and warm and clear. So whatever stars that weren't drowned out by light pollution, we could see, and it was just really nice.

And you know, the crickets are out doing their thing and you can just kind of hear the sounds of the forest at night. And so we just keep walking and we get through this meadow and we walk back into the forest. And as we walk back into the forest, you notice it kind of becomes a little cold and whatnot.

My buddy thinks this was the beginning of our encounter. I just think it was cold because, you know, it was damp in there. And so it's probably just a bit of cooler air. We keep walking along our path. It was a path, a beaten out path. We weren't just bushwhacking. We start to smell the smell of rotting flesh.

And, you know, my buddy, he started to get a little scared at that. But I knew there's lots of cougars in the area or cougars, mountain lions, whatever you call them. And I just assumed one probably got a deer and its carcass is just rotten away. So I didn't really think too much of it. And we keep walking and there's a little bit of a breeze and whatnot. And I'm still enjoying our time. But then I hear my name whispered in my ear.

And I stopped and my buddy stopped at the exact same time and he says to me, yo, did you hear that? And I was like, what do you mean? He's like, did you hear that? Did you say my name? I was like, no, I didn't say your name. I heard my name. I thought you said my name. And he's like, no, I heard my name. And so we were both kind of started to freak out a little bit and getting really scared and nervous and whatnot. And

We're both kind of just bantering at each other. No, you had to have said my name. No, you said my name and whatnot. And it was all pretty particular. And then we just decide, like, you know, we're already up here halfway through the hike. We may as well just keep walking. And so we keep walking and the smell of rotting flesh still persists. And it's kind of being, you know, bothersome to us. But we keep going. And then about 200 or so meters down the trail,

We see two yellow dots. So my buddy and I, we stop and we're really weirded out by this point. And so we see these yellow dots and they would blink at us from time to time. You know, they would disappear and then they would come back in the exact same spot. And then the yellow dots, they kind of just floated there for a bit. And then they started going to like our right of the trail. So if it was a person or whatever looking at us, it would have been their left.

And they just kind of wander off. And as the dots disappear, the sounds of the forest come back and the smell of the rotting flesh goes away. And so we're both, you know, we're kind of tripped out. But I felt a little bit better after I saw the dots go away and, you know, the sounds of the forest came back. And so we just decided to keep walking to the top of the trail and, you know, saw a beautiful sunrise and nothing ever happened after that.

Now the area in which we were hiking on, it's not on an actual First Nations reserve. Like not a reserve recognized by the Canadian government. But because that nation who lived there however many years ago and I guess still lives there, they used all the lands and it's very close to like the actual reserve.

everyone just in that area knows it as native land. And so I went and talked to a native woman that I know. I told her about the encounter and she said it sounded a lot like a skinwalker. And she told me never to say that again because it attracts them or whatever. I don't know. I did some more looking into skinwalkers after what she said. And

There's just a lot of stuff that seems like it's all scary stories and whatnot. My buddy, her saying Skinwalker was enough for him, so he's pretty convinced. I'm more along the lines of it was the wind or our minds playing tricks on us and those two dots were fireflies. The only thing that kind of trips me out about it is

If they were fireflies, I feel like when they were blinking or whatever, it wouldn't have been in perfect unison. It would have been one go out, then the other go out. And I feel like we would have seen more fireflies throughout the hike, but we didn't. And I mean, it coupled with being on First Nations land, that, you know, is kind of scary, I guess. But I don't know.

I love the podcast and I love listening to it and I love the work that you do. So thank you. Thank you, Matias. Anyone notice that little connection in there to a call we played just a little bit ago? Anonymous from Shaver Lake who too saw a glowing yellow dot out in the forest. Now is that a coincidence or a legit connection? And to hear your name whispered on the trail, I don't like that at all. Not only does that mean you're not alone when you thought you were,

That's bad enough. But it also means that whatever this thing is that's with you knows exactly who you are. Now, it's spooky stuff and it's great stuff, Matthias. And we can't thank you enough for calling it in. Now, folks, don't forget. If you love the show and you're all caught up on past episodes, you can always access our content on The Beyond, the after show we do almost every Thursday.

I say almost because we're not doing one here this evening because of this special campout episode. But normally we extend episodes 30 to 45 minutes with additional stories told by listeners just like you.

Now there's days worth of content and you can get it all for less than the price of a coffee each month. Just visit MonstersAmongUsPodcast.com and click the Patreon tab. All the instructions are right there. Five bucks a month gets you access to all of that content. A dollar a month gets you the main show content completely ad-free. And you can try either platform for free using the seven-day free trial.

Again, that's MonstersAmongUsPodcast.com and click the Patreon tab. Or visit us on Patreon or Apple subscriptions. I tell ya, we really appreciate all the support. Now folks, this next one isn't just a story. It also comes with proof. Here with another story about hiking. Which is basically camping, but with a good night's sleep. Please, welcome Ricky out of Pennsylvania.

Hello, Monster Among Us family. My name is Ricky. I am from Redding, Pennsylvania, and my story takes place at a place in Mount Penn called Never Sink Mountain. It was Friday, September 25th, 2020, during the lovely COVID era, and it was in fall. It was around 7.30ish when I decided to take a hike with, at the time, my girlfriend at a trail called the Witch's Hat Trail.

It's about an hour hike up and back, maybe a little longer depending if you take strolls. I've done this hike a million times, never had no issues. Also hiked many trails at this place.

Anyway...

So we decided to take this hike late on a whim. I've actually hiked, you know, at places that you're not supposed to, even in the dark with a headlamp, always prepared, things like that. But anyway, we decided to take this hike and just try to get one in and, you know, have a good time. Got to the trailhead, started up, and I remember getting a very, very, like...

creepy feeling. It's hard to explain, but I know anybody who's been in this situation knows the feeling. It's like something's watching you and you don't know what it is, but you know, like something isn't right. Like that feeling in your stomach and, you know, being a man, I decided, Oh, you know, let me push on. Like, doesn't bother me, whatever. So we are about, you know, 45 minutes into the trail. And I remember my girlfriend at the time,

turns over to me, looks at me and says, hey, do you have this feeling? And I'm like, the feeling that we were being followed and watched, yes. And she's like, yes, yes. And she...

Was very scared, very nervous, so we decided instead of finishing the hike to turn around and walk back. So again, about maybe a half hour walk back, you know, to the car, whatever. So as we're coming closer and closer to near the entrance, we're coming down one of the final hills before you come around. And it's like a straight little path for about a mile, maybe two miles to get to the car. So nothing too, too crazy.

So as we're coming down, she decides to tell me to stop and turns around and says, hey, I want to take a quick picture. So, well, okay, you know, somebody's scared, you want to take a picture? No big deal. She's like, well, it's because of this feeling.

So she turned around, she takes the picture, no big deal, turn around, still has a really creepy feeling, like to the point where I actually feel like I want to run, and I know she's trying to hustle out of there and it's getting dark, but I'm like, nah, don't run, like even if it's an animal or something, don't show no fear, whatever. Anyways, thankfully we make it down to the car, get home, she doesn't live with me, so we get to my house, her car's here, I drove home,

I ended up coming in the house. You know, she says her goodbyes, goes home. And as she gets home, a few minutes later, she turns around and she sends me these pictures. Well, I have sent the pictures in, and it is a creature in the picture that looks like, I don't know how to describe it, but it has, like, gray skin. It looks very, very tall. It's crouched down. It looks like it has long black hair, almost like a gargoyle, or for some reason I always want to call it a valkyrie.

Thank you, Ricky. It's not too often that we get to see photos of what a witness saw. But tonight is a special night.

Ricky was kind enough to send in the photo, and you can find it on our social media pages, or in tonight's show notes at MonstersAmongUsPodcast.com. But for those of you that won't remember to take a look, the image is blurry, which checks out, given the state of panic that was slowly gripping the pair. The image also looks to be taken somewhere in the forest, perhaps along a path between the trees. In the distance you can see something standing there.

Now it's hard to make it out, but it's also hard to say that there's nothing there at all. Now you know where to find the image. Go take a look and decide for yourself. In the meantime, thanks again, Ricky, for sharing the story and for sharing the phone call. I'm actually, I'm pardoned by... Nothing more nor less than the pointing out of the letter T. The reference warrants are a hell of a lot lower. Welcome back, folks.

Now I bet at this point you're starting to get concerned. Concerned that we're nearing the end of tonight's program. Well, fear not. I have several more calls to share with you on tonight's special episode. So let's just dive right back in. Our next story comes to us from a place I was lucky enough to have visited last fall. A dangerously beautiful locale in the state of Arizona. Please welcome Ken to the program.

Hey Derek, this is Ken. This story is a camping story, more of a backpacking story actually. It happened in Saguaro National Park, just east of Tucson, Arizona. I was working on hiking the Arizona Trail and I'd already been hiking for about 20 miles that day and I ended up hiking into Saguaro National Park and hiked in through the night up to a place called Grass Shack Campground.

And as I got there, you end up crossing into a river, real quiet, nice little campground. I set up my tent and I sat down on a log and I set my backpack directly next to me and I went to go reach out and grab my food bag.

And my headlamp all of a sudden started flickering. So I distinctly remember setting down the food bag on my left-hand side right next to my left foot. And my headlamp started to flicker. And it finally just turned out on me completely. So I went to go grab my phone. And as I was going to grab my phone to turn on the light, out of the back right side, I had looked up and I saw something move behind me off to my right. And I turned and I looked and

The only thing that was there were my hiking poles. I was like, okay. So I finally get my phone and I start tapping the flashlight button to get the light going. And unfortunately, it didn't turn on until several seconds and several pushes later. So I get that set up and I set it on my backpack just to the right of me. And I point it directly towards where I thought my food bag was at. And I look over and my food bag wasn't there.

So I grabbed my flashlight off my phone that I just let down and I start looking around my tents in front of me and I look to my right and about five feet, six feet off or so, there was my food bag sitting right in the middle of the campground. I hadn't moved. I hadn't touched anything. And I

At that moment, it got really quiet in the campground. And I was already the only one in this campground. And the only thing you can hear is the water kind of running off to the side. So I chuckled. I laughed. I said, ah, you guys got me. That was a good one. And I went up and I picked up my food, ate my dinner. And as I'm going to sleep that night, the only thing I heard was this owl just hooting in the background. And I fell asleep.

Nothing happened. And then next morning, I wake up, pack up my stuff, and as I'm packing up and about to eat breakfast, some kid just comes off of the mountain, and he works for the National Park. And I started telling him the story, and he's like, oh, yeah, man, stuff happens here all the time. You don't know what's going to end up happening. But after that, I just started paying attention and everything.

Every night that I slept by myself, I always heard owls throughout that entire trip. And those were the best nights that I slept. Thanks, man. I appreciate the show and I hope you have a good day. Thank you, Ken. One of those stories that just leaves you unnerved. And sure, I guess there are a few animals in the area that possibly could have moved the bag. A big cat, perhaps. A raccoon, maybe. A quaddie. Or maybe just some prankster getting his kicks out in the desert.

But I'll be honest, none of that seems all that likely. Now, we did do some investigating on Saguaro, but we didn't really uncover anything that could help us explain Ken's strange experience. But we have our feelers out there, and if you have any insight, again, that phone number is 888-608-NIGHT. Now, of course, there is a paranormal subject that I could suggest here. The forest people.

The Fae Folk. Elves. Hobbits. The Little People of the Forest. Or Forest Gnomes, if you will. If what's written in a lot of these reports is true, they're known tricksters. And it seems like the western U.S. is the home range for whatever these mysterious tiny troublemakers are. And to prove that statement, I have another story that just might describe the same thing that Ken did. Gnomes.

From the state of Oregon, please welcome both Robin and her sister Michelle to tonight's program. Hey Derek, this is for your camp stories episode. My name's Robin, I'm a Patreon subscriber, and I've got my sister here with me, Michelle. We live in Eugene, Oregon, but our story happened at Mount Shasta in California, California.

We've determined 1999, so it's been a while. So our recollections are a little fuzzy, but we're kind of hashing it out before the call. I'm going to let her start and I'm going to chime in if I have anything to add.

Okay, so we decided to go camping at Mount Shasta. My sister and myself and my baby, who was, I think, 18 months old, she was just an infant. So we went down to Mount Shasta, found some cool little spot in the woods. Not a campsite. Yeah, just off the trail.

And we were out in the middle of nowhere. Like, we had driven off on all these crazy roads. It wasn't a campsite. And we had just found a spot, like, deep tucked in the woods. So there wasn't, like, traffic or cars. We never heard anyone drive up or anything like that. And we're having a lovely evening around the campfire.

We had also Robin's little dog with us who got into the woods and got into something pretty stinky. So we didn't let Tobias in the tent. We put Tobias back in the car for the night because he was too stinky. And we got ready to go to bed and my baby was asleep already. And we were just kind of falling asleep. And all of a sudden,

We just heard all hell breaking loose. It was Tobias screaming. It sounded like a giant bear we thought was getting the ice chest on top of the car, was getting into the food. There was just this crazy loud commotion and we were terrified and we just froze and stayed really still and didn't do anything. The baby didn't wake up. We just finally, after a long time, calmed down. The sound went away.

I had a six-inch knife that my father had given me, and my sister says, get the knife. And I'm like, it's in the car. So we were without weapons. Anyway, it was scary. And so a little while later, I don't know how much longer it was, we woke up because we heard footsteps coming.

Very clear, like, sounded like a big man walking around the campsite, around the tent, going around and around. And that's when I said, Robin, where's your knife? She said, it's out there. And our hearts just sank. And I was panicking, thinking, oh, my God, I brought my baby here. We're going to all die soon.

I was way more afraid that there was a man out there. - Of a human, yeah. - Yeah, with a knife. And so we just tried to not breathe, not say anything. We just stayed really, really still. Eventually we fell asleep 'cause we were just so tired and scared probably. And then sometime later,

We wake up to what sounded like a stampede going all through the camp around us. I don't know, like we thought it was a herd of elk or something. There was snorting. It was crazy. It was just so loud and insane. And that went on for a little while and then that stopped. Then finally, you know, we go to sleep and we wake up in the morning just expecting that the whole campsite is going to be trashed and devastated and scratches all over the car.

We didn't even know if Tobias was okay or not. And when we got up, there were like no footprints, nothing had been touched, no hoof prints, no evidence of anything.

Yeah, it was the most bizarre thing ever. It was just all crazy all night long. And then we get up and it was like nothing real had happened. So that's our experience. And I haven't gone camping on Mount Shasta since. When we heard what we thought was an animal outside, it was kind of scary, but not as scary as when we thought there was...

potentially a human or humans walking around our tent in the middle of the night, in the middle of nowhere. And what we had realized was that we had left the hatchet by the fire. So that was even scarier, thinking that whoever was out there had access to that weapon. I don't know. It was a terrifying night. Okay, that's all we have. Thanks. Bye.

Thank you, ladies. You know those self-defense weapons do you more good when you have them on you. Rookie mistake. But in this case, there was another thing you might have tried, ladies. You could always activate your car alarm if it was parked nearby, just like our caller did earlier in the program. Let your car horn clear the area. But of course, you'd better be in real danger if you do that. Otherwise, you might have to tend with the rest of the campground.

that you just woke up. Now don't think I didn't notice that this was yet another story out of the Mount Shasta area. And for those of you that are unfamiliar with Mount Shasta and its magic, here is a quick crash course. Mount Shasta is a massive 14,000 foot volcanic peak in Northern California. It's known not just for its size, but for its intense concentration of paranormal and supernatural activity.

From mysterious disappearances and time slips, to glowing roped figures known as ancient Lemurians living in a hidden city beneath a mountain, the legends run deep. Hikers have reported strange lights, marble-like hallways vanishing into rock, and eerie voices echoing from caves within.

UFO sightings are common in the area. Triangular craft, glowing orbs, and silent ships seen entering the mountain itself. Whether it's myth, madness, or something far more real, Mount Shasta continues to lure the curious and the unprepared. Now, I just so happen to have one more story that takes place on Mount Shasta, and I'd like to share it with you now. And get this, it's another gnome story. And...

It too comes to us from yet another Robin. Hi, my name is Robin and I live in California near Sacramento. About 15 years ago, my husband and I took our two small children on a camping trip further into Northern California and it was in the Whiskey Town Shasta area and it was kind of off season and when we got to the campground we were super excited because we seemed to be

pretty much the only people there and we got just an awesome secluded campsite like right on the water and it was just so cool. We were so happy we had the place to ourselves and we started to just have a great time. It was tent camping by the way so every night we would get into our tent with our kids and go to sleep and every night my husband and I would be woken up by just odd noises and

weird feelings and it was really scary. It sounded like we could hear something or someone walking around outside our campsite. In the morning, we would get up and we would look and it was not like animal activities. You know, we had camped a lot. We knew what it looks like when animals, you know, get into your stuff when you're camping and it was nothing like that.

Anyway, this went on night after night. And during the day, we would have so much fun that we'd be like, oh, you know, we'd go to bed. We'd get super scared hearing these noises. And we would be like, that's it. This is last night. We're going home. And then the next day, we would just stay and have fun again. We were young and dumb and whatever. But one night, we went to sleep. And...

The noises started happening like more than ever. And I just felt like my blood run cold. As I'm laying under the sleeping bag, I was sleeping right under the tent window. And you know how a tent window is like net. You can kind of see out, but you can't see out perfectly. Well, anyway, here's me frozen in fear, trying to just lay as still as I can and remain calm.

And then all of a sudden, I just felt like something was nearby me. And while laying with my head on the pillow, I just slowly opened my eyes and I looked up to the tent window. And looking down at me was a very small, what I perceived to be a man in a tall pointy hat.

Anyway.

At that time, I had never heard any of the lore surrounding the Shasta area, Mount Shasta, Lake Shasta, and all that surrounding area. I didn't know any of it. So there was nothing to influence me to have thought I saw something like that.

So anyway, I, to this day, I don't know what it was. I know what I saw. I've told a couple of people the story and it always turns into like a big joke. And it kind of is now, but at the time it was absolutely terrifying. And now I'm just very curious as to what it was I actually saw. Anyway, thank you for what you do. Awesome, awesome podcast. Have a great night. Thank you, Robin. That's pretty incredible.

And sure, I made a guess with Ken's account. And I took the hints from Robin and Michelle's account. I don't know for sure it was gnomes in either of those stories they were describing. Hell, I don't even know that they exist. But with Robin's story here, I don't think we have to guess. It sounds like she was describing some sort of small humanoid creature. A creature most of us would probably identify as some sort of gnome.

Now Robin did bring up folklore about Mount Shasta, of which there is plenty. But you might notice that I didn't mention little people or gnomes in my list of reported phenomena. That's because it's not the most popular paranormal symptom. But that doesn't mean it doesn't get reported from time to time. Or that those legends don't exist.

Because there is a place there on Shasta. A place called Panther Meadow. And according to a website called Star Sea Gathering, it's home to a few familiar faces. This, according to that website. Panther Meadow is a sacred site that all the Native Americans revered for its power, medicine, and tranquility. Native Americans consider the spring that runs through the upper and lower Panther Meadows to be sacred power points.

At an elevation of 7,600 feet on Mount Shasta, Panther Meadow is a magical place, revered as an ancient destination point for spiritual seekers. Panther Meadows is inside a special vortex within the larger vortex of Mount Shasta itself.

It is considered a doorway between dimensions. Ascended Masters as well as angelic beings have been seen here. Many have experienced the elemental energies of elves, fairies, gnomes, nature spirits as well as seeing Pan who rules the nature kingdom. Now of course I have no way of knowing if those last couple of stories took place anywhere near Panther Meadows but at the very least

We know that reports of these strange little beings exist in the Shasta area. Now I'm sort of obsessed with these types of stories, so I'll definitely keep my ears open. And a big thanks to Robin for sharing the tale in the meantime. Woof!

If you're asking guys to go out there and split their don'ts 48 hours ago. Now for something out of the ordinary. Please welcome Colin from Oregon. Hello Derek, it's Colin from Oregon. Originally from Colorado. You've been asking for hiking and camping stories and stuff. And so that's what my story is going to be.

It's not exactly anything super outright paranormal. I would probably classify it more as high strangeness. Alright, so my dad took me backpacking a lot when I was younger. Middle school and high school. And the longest trips we'd ever done were like around two days long. So we would drive out somewhere, hike, find a spot, set up camp for one night, and then...

take up camp and walk down the trail and go back home. But I think it was the summer of 2019, we decided to go on a longer backpacking trip. This trip ended up being three days long total. It was at the Dark Canyon Trailhead

in Grand Mesa and Uncompahgre in Gunnison National Forests. The title's super weird, I don't know if that's what the actual national forest it was in is in, but on the Forest Service website, that's what it's called. Anyways, we didn't see a single person for like two days. We saw a group of people riding horses on the trail the first day.

And then we didn't see anybody until the third day when we crossed through a campground. And we didn't really see any animals either. This trail is like really in the middle of nowhere. There's nothing around. The closest town is like, I would guess 15 miles away, 20 miles away. It's like really in there. There's no like county roads or

I mean, there might be like National Forest Service roads, but no one really uses those besides Forest Service workers, I think. And so we didn't hear anybody. We couldn't hear other people around us. It was literally just me and my dad on the trail and the occasional deer. We saw a bat. That's about it. And so on the second night, we had set up camp.

This little canyon. And we were set up basically right next to this river. And the side of the canyon, basically, there's a bunch of boulders. And there's big pine trees around us, raspberry bushes, all this stuff. And me and my dad, we're pretty into paranormal stuff. I've never experienced anything outright paranormal before.

He has, and he exposed me to a lot of paranormal media, podcasts, shows, stuff like that. So I'm pretty well versed in this stuff. And one thing that we like to do when we're backpacking is we listen to paranormal podcasts and stuff when we're just chilling in the tent, getting ready to sleep. That kind of works us up a little bit sometimes.

There was this one time a train went by on a separate trip and it blared its horn and it scared the **** out of us because we thought it was... I thought it was like a UFO or something like that. Anyways, so we're in this canyon. I would say 2 in the morning, 3 in the morning, we hear this massive... It sounded like a massive object falling into the river and all of the water...

like landing around it creating like that weird like sparkly crackly noise and it woke both of us up we got out we were looking around we didn't notice any fallen trees or anything and we didn't think we were in danger or anything so we just kind of went back to sleep and in the morning when we woke up we walked up the trail and down the trail like about i would say

like 200 feet both directions. We were just looking for anything that could have fallen into the river and created such a noise. There was no trail of a boulder. There was no uprooted soil. There was no fallen trees. There was no signs of anything. I really have no idea what it could have been. There's supposedly lots of sightings of Bigfoot and stuff.

This doesn't feel like Bigfoot. It feels like something else entirely. I would not be able to tell you what I would label it. We could not come up with any logical thing besides a boulder falling into the river or a tree falling over into the river that could have made that noise, but we didn't find anything that would indicate that there was a boulder that fell into the river or a fallen tree. All right. Thanks for the show. Bye. Thank you, caller.

A huge object that splashed into the river without leaving any kind of sign in the state of Colorado, no less. Well, it sounds to me like it could be something natural, something alive, something that could make the noise and then retreat, leaving no evidence. Maybe a beaver slapping its tail on the surface, as we discussed in a recent episode. And believe it or not, that is a real thing that they do.

And this is actually what it sounds like. And it could have been any number of large fish as well, jumping up and breaking the surface. They too would leave no sign that they were there. But truth be told, whatever Colin was describing sounded much bigger than that, at least to me. The way I was picturing his description, it was almost as if someone dropped a piano-sized boulder into the water.

now believe it or not when you put all those clues together you're left with a cryptid a cryptid that's equal parts comical and terrifying they call it the slide rock bolter a whale-like creature that is said to hunt the mountaintops and ridges of colorado that according to early 20th century lumberjacks at least a creature known to wipe out entire excursions with a single bite an animal

that if it slid into the water would undoubtedly make the same splashing sound that Colin reported hearing. But what exactly is the slide rock bolter, you ask? Well, this is how it was described in 1910. According to the book, Fearsome Creatures of the Lumber Woods, the slide rock bolter, Macrostoma Saxiparumptus.

In the mountains of Colorado, where in summer the woods are becoming infested with tourists, much uneasiness has been caused by the presence of the slide rock bolter. This frightful animal lives only in the steepest mountain country, where the slopes are greater than 45 degrees. It has an immense head, with small eyes and a mouth somewhat on the order of a skull pin, running back behind its ears.

The tale consists of a divided flipper with enormous grab hooks, which it fastens over the crest of the mountain or ridge, often remaining there motionless for days at a time, watching the gulch for tourists or any other hapless creature that may enter it.

At the right moment after sighting the tourist, it will lift its tail, thus loosening its hold on the mountain, and with its small eyes riveted on the poor unfortunate, and drooling thin skid-grease from the corners of its mouth, which greatly accelerates its speed. The boulder comes down like a toboggan, scooping in its victims as it goes, its own impetus carrying it up the next slope, where it again slaps its tail over the ridge and waits.

Now some say they never existed, while others attest that there's still a few of them up there. But if I didn't know any better, I'd say the Colin heard one of these slide rock bolters as it made its way down a mountainside in search of unfortunate prey. Now we thank you again Colin for taking the time to share the story. Slide rock bolter or not, sounds like quite the puzzler. Now folks, we've set up camp, we've taken a hike,

We've told some stories, we've roasted some s'mores, and we've fed our fire. The night is winding down, and there's only a few of us left awake. So let's turn things up a notch with these last few entries. From the Commonwealth of Virginia, please join me in welcoming Sigrid to tonight's program. Hey, this is Sigrid. I'm listening to Season 19, Episode 9.

You were talking about camping stories. And I have a camping story. This happened back in 2000. And it scared the hell out of me. And I've never been camping since. And only just now I'm getting back into wanting to go again. So it was me, my friend John, his at the time girlfriend, Jenna. They got married a few years later.

and then the girl I was dating at the time. And we were in the George Washington National Forest here in Virginia, where I'm from. And we were going to do a three-day hike along Appalachian Trail. Well, we were about halfway through our first day hiking, and we heard the classic sound

Sasquatch scream yell. Now here in Virginia, they're called sagebrush apes. Interesting factoid. But I mean, it was the classic scream yell. We all just stopped. It was from a rise kind of off to our right. We were heading kind of south. And so we just went, okay, that was strange.

Definitely not the wind. There was nobody around that we were aware of. And I mean, who's going to wait around in the woods just to scream, yell at random people? That's not normally something people do. We sat there for like 20 minutes and talked about this, tried to talk about possibilities. We just decided, whatever, we're just going to keep going. So we kept going.

A couple hours later, two or three hours later, we made camp. And just at last light, a little bit after last light, we had our campfire going and we were cooking dinner. And we heard wood knocking. And it came from one side of us and there was a pause. And then from the other side of us, off in the distance, was a response.

The other side of us responded in kind. And we're just going, well, I mean, nothing was said, but we're just all looking at each other going, oh, no, what are we going to do? And then finally, Jenna, John's girlfriend, goes, what's that? And I looked at her because I was already a little familiar with Sasquatches and Sasquatches.

I already knew that primates, especially great apes, will use wood knocking as a way of communicating in two-dimensional space. I had seen that in the documentary as a child about great apes. But anyway, I told her that. I said, great apes, and it's theorized that Sasquatches use wood knocking as a way of communicating in two-dimensional space.

And the wood knocking response came on the other side of us again. So we're just going, okay, this is getting even worse. So John and I, being both the picky and well-prepared people we are always, went and got the large knives that we had brought with us.

mostly for, you know, you don't go camping without knives and hatchets and camping stuff, you know, for chopping up wood for firewood and stuff like that. So, okay, you know, we had those. We pulled them out and just sat there. A few minutes later, we had small pine cones and small rocks and some small twigs thrown at us. Well, not at us specifically, but, you know, at the center of

towards the fire. And we're just going, "Okay." None of us slept that night. As soon as the crack of dawn, as soon as we could see what we were doing, we broke camp, doused the last bits of ash out, and took the shortest route we could to the vehicle, packed everything up, and left. Did not stop to get home. And I've never been camping since.

Anyway, keep it spooky. Thank you, Sigrid. You used a term there I'm not familiar with. A sagebrush ape. Now both Delaney and myself searched for more information on that moniker. But we both came up dry. So if anyone else out there is familiar, you know how to reach me.

Now, upon closer inspection, we learn that the George Washington National Forest has 24 registered Sasquatch encounters. According to the BFRO website, those sightings stretch over 13 counties, so the area seems to be pretty active with some sort of strangeness. Now, I've linked to all of that information and a ton of other connections to tonight's calls in tonight's show notes.

Just visit MonstersAmongUsPodcast.com and click on the show notes tab. Feel free to take a deep dive and enjoy yourself. And speaking of enjoying, it's time for tonight's final campfire story. And I really think you're going to enjoy this one. From the beautiful state of Oregon, please welcome Annette to the program.

Hello, this is Annette. I wanted to make a submission to maybe a camping story. I live in Oregon and I used to go camping up in the wilderness in the Cascades. And when I was younger, I would go up and just stay the night in the Cascades and then we would travel over to Eastern Oregon where it's really fun and kind of neat stuff over there. But

This one time my ex-husband and I and my dog had decided to go up and camp in the wilderness in the Cascade Mountains. And we went way, way up on these logging roads that went up to this big lake. But we never really quite made it to the lake. It was getting dark and we were on a logging road and there was this, I don't know, about 60 to 70 percent incline in the mountains on one side.

And then on the other side of the logging road was this little small lake, almost pond-like, with several camp spots around it. And we got out of our car, but I was really nervous inside because I thought, oh my God, what if a bear comes down? Because there was a whole bunch of ripe huckleberries that were just perfect. I mean, normally I'd be pretty excited about eating those myself, but we were just there to, you know, go to bed and get up early and get out to Eastern Oregon.

So it was getting dark and we just thought, well, we're just going to have to risk it because there's nothing else to go to, you know. So we went ahead and set up our tent and we went straight to bed. Well, I woke up at about 140 in the morning and I looked at my watch and I had to go to the bathroom.

But then I hear what sounded like elk coming off that incline on the other side of the logging road, which our tent was just on the other side next to this little lake. So I hear what sounds like elk and I'm like, well, they'll just go around the tent and go into the woods, you know, on the other side of the lake. But when whatever this was got to the logging road, there was just a moment's hesitation.

And then it was quiet, and then all of a sudden, three large bipedal beings come walking. One walked on one side of my tent, one walked on the other side of the tent, and then one walked on kind of over to the curvature of this lake that, you know, would go out into the woods. They just stood there, and then they started stepping from one foot to the other foot.

And I'm just sitting there freaked out, like, I don't know what's happening. In my head, I'm thinking, this is elk? Elk doesn't walk on two feet. And anyway, so what was weird was they were stepping from one foot to another foot, and they started getting in unison, like in their footsteps. And every time they stepped, it felt like the earth was moving. So whatever it was, was incredibly heavy.

And I was terrified. I had to go to the bathroom, but I didn't want to look out my tent. And part of me was trying to still think, oh, this is an elk. I don't want to get kicked in the head if there's an elk next to my tent. That could be dangerous. And so I tried to wake up my ex-husband. He normally had insomnia, but he wouldn't wake up. And anyways, all of a sudden, I realized, wait, I don't hear them anymore. And I look at my watch.

And it's now 2:20 in the morning.

So 40 minutes had gone by. I'm feeling mesmerized by the footsteps and then I never hear these things walk off or the elk walk off or whatever it was. So I still had to go to the bathroom. So what I did was I just prayed to God and said, please, you know, let me sleep till morning and daylight and then I can go to the bathroom and I'm not going to get out of my tent because I'm too scared.

And anyways, I fell instantly asleep. I woke up at 5 in the morning. I think it was like 5.15.

Not one, not two, but three big upright creatures.

Probably not what you'd like to see on your camping trip. Thank you, Annette, for calling in. Now, Annette mentioned a detail there that doesn't come up on the show all that often, but it does come up in Bigfoot lore more often than most would suspect. And that's the detail about the creature swaying. I've heard it dozens of times. The creature will freeze once witnessed. Then after a few moments, it will begin to sway ever so slightly.

back and forth. A subtle yet deliberate movement. Now according to some researchers, there are any number of reasons why they might practice this strange behavior. Some suspect that swaying offers the creature some sort of comfort. It's suspected that they do so to regulate their nervous system, similar to how humans with autism or savant tendencies might sway or rock to calm themselves.

This could be particularly relevant when they are agitated or stressed out. It's also suspected that they do this to enhance their vision. Swaying might help them get a better view of their surroundings or objects of interest by minimizing blind spots or adjusting their sight line. In other words, they're just trying to get a better look. Yet others have posited that it's due to their body structure.

Bigfoot's gait is often described as smooth and fluid, with long strides and bent knees, which might cause some swaying. This differs from the human gait, which has more up and down fluctuations. Some researchers suggest that the swaying could be related to maintaining an upright posture, especially considering their reported long arms and slightly forward-leaning posture.

And the last popular explanation is that they do this odd behavior as a method of intimidation. Some reports suggest that the swaying could be a way for Bigfoot to appear larger or more threatening, potentially as a way to intimidate or assess potential threats. Now, before I leave you here this evening to tend to this fire by your lonesome,

I wanted to first share a few encounters where the witness too detailed the creature swaying or rocking back and forth. Both of these encounters are courtesy of the Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization. Now the first encounter occurred in Missouri back in 2018. Here is the relevant portion. Once we crossed to the other side of the field we saw something on the trail about 150 to 200 yards off.

Even from that distance, I could see it was big. I noted a head by a limb that I judged was maybe five or six feet off the ground. What we saw then crouched and sort of swayed a few times before taking off to the right and stopping. And this one from New Mexico, which occurred in April of 2008.

She described the breathing sounds as a gorilla-like grunting noise that began just before something hit the outside wall of her bedroom, directly above the headboard of her bed and hard enough that she could feel the vibration. The outline of the figure clearly showed a very large head on top of a huge body that completely covered the rest of the 36-inch wide window. She observed the shadows swaying back and forth as if trying to find a gap in the blinds to see through.

Now a link to both of these encounters can be found in our show notes at MonstersAmongUsPodcast.com and by clicking on the show notes tab. And that's it, folks. That's where I leave you here this evening with three massive swaying giants. Just be happy they weren't moving in unison. Now I had a blast putting this program together for you here this evening. I only wish I had more time to devote to it. But with calls like what we shared here this evening...

Most of the hard work is already done. So a huge thanks to all of tonight's callers. I asked, and boy did you guys deliver. So please, take a bow. As for the rest of you, this is a Thursday episode, so don't get in a big hurry rushing out of here. We're not done yet. But for now, Monsters Among Us podcast is written and produced by me, Derek Hayes. Copyright RedGrowMedia.com

Additional support is provided by Sarah Carter Hayes, Delaney Bowers, and Connor Ryan. All media used in this production is done so under the protection of fair use. Give us a like and follow on our social media pages. Join us on our Discord server. And give us some support over at YouTube. Don't forget you can catch the show every Saturday evening at 10 p.m. Eastern on the Unexed Digital Network. Just visit unexednetwork.com to tune in.

Tonight's sound effects were courtesy of Envato Elements. And tonight's score was provided by Iron Cthulhu, Apocalypse, Code.agmusic, and Carl Casey at White Pad Audio. Now please give our film a watch. Shadows in the Desert High Strangeness in the Borrego Triangle. You can learn how at borregotriangle.com or by searching us out on Amazon Prime or Tupi.

Just search for Shadows in the Desert and it'll pop up there somewhere. And although we're not going beyond this week, most other times we do. And you don't want to miss a single minute of that additional action. Five bucks on Patreon or Apple subscriptions gives you instant access to hundreds of hours of bonus content, including all of the aftershows. Just visit MonstersAmongUsPodcast.com and click the Patreon tab.

to get more info. Well folks, it's time to put this fire out. Now be careful walking back to your tent. I'll see you all in the morning. - We warn you during emergencies, if you give a crap about anybody,

Because you must know what you're watching to. And they were big contributors. Oh, hey. What are you doing up? Couldn't sleep, huh? Nah, the fire's not completely out. So I'm just making sure we don't burn the forest down. Go ahead and have a seat. The sky sure looks big out here, doesn't it? Anything could be up there. Say, since you're here, do you want to hear one more story? Are you sure? Because this one's pretty scary. All right.

You asked for it. Matt from California, welcome to the show. Hey Dirk, this is Matt from Los Angeles. I have a camping story for you. This didn't occur at the campground. We were en route, but I still think it counts because we were in the camper heading out. This happened in probably it was spring, but it was 90 or 91. I was five or just turned six.

We live out here in LA and we would go out camping in Palm Desert, Palm Springs area a lot. We were heading out to a place called Sam's Family Spa out in Palm Desert. It's a pretty cool place. Check it out. And we were driving on what's called the 60 freeway. It's like a highway. This was back, like I said, you know, late 80s, early 90s. And at the time it was just kind of like a pretty small, I think it was four lanes at the time. Kind of one of the ways to get to Palm Springs, Palm Desert area from LA.

And there's a certain point where, right before you come into the Moreno Valley, where you cut through this kind of badlands area, it's kind of low hills and scrub, and there's really nothing else out there. There's no streetlights or anything. It's pretty dark at night. When this occurred, we were just around dusk, so the sun was starting to go down. And we're going through this badland area on the 60th, and there's these embankments kind of on the, you know, shoulder area.

And in the camper when I was in, you know, of course being in the 90s, there was no seatbelt. My parents were driving the truck and I was in the camper shell in the back just chilling, looking out the window. And, you know, you could look over these embankments and look down into these valleys kind of stretched off in the distance. And I remember being kind of pretty, the light the way it was. People were starting to turn on their headlights. Anyway, we're going through the highway and we're coming around a curve. And the lights from our truck and the one behind us illuminated everything.

Something that looked dead on the side of the road. It looked like it had just climbed up the embankment and just done a header straight down. It was short and squat, but it was humanoid and it had long kind of spindly arms and a really weird extended head. It was pale, mottled skin.

The best way I could describe it and what kind of struck me at the time was it reminded me of that scene from E.T. when E.T. is, they find him kind of by a river, I think, and he's covered with raccoons and he's all sick and he's all like mottled and pale and gross looking. I mean, in the movie, he's on his back. But this thing that I saw was on its face. So I didn't see any facial features or anything like that.

But in that moment, when those headlights illuminated this thing, it became very clear to me that whatever I was looking at wasn't a person. You know, listening to the show a lot, like I've been for a few years now, as time has gone on, I remembered this story.

I'm kind of leaning more towards that pale crawler. I think that's what I saw. And I don't know if it was dead or if it was faking dead, but it looked like this thing had climbed up from one of these little low valleys up the embankment and just fell over and was draped over the side of that little low hill on the shoulder, arms splayed out, face down.

And it was real gross looking, real terrifying. And again, I only saw it for a moment in that flashbulb headlight moment. But if I close my eyes right now, I can still see it. And I was five at the time. I've never forgotten it. I don't even think I told my parents. But that was it. Coming out of L.A., 60 freeway. Probably not far from where you are up on the hill. The rest of the trip was fine, by the way. We went camping and it was great. But heading out there, that was weird. Take care, man. Love the show. Bye. Thank you, Matt.

Not far from me at all. In fact, I can see that exact area from just up the road here. So no, not far at all. And it's close enough that you'd think I would have remembered hearing about a creature like this. And given that I'd not heard of any strange squat ET-looking thing out there in Moreno Valley, I think it's safe to say that this was probably a one-off, whatever it was.

And sure, nearby Riverside has the Riverside Monster, a lizardman-esque creature that attacked a car once. And over in Fontana, which isn't far down the road either, they have the Speedway Monster, a Bigfoot-type creature that visited the racetrack there in Fontana. And of course, the infamous Brego Triangle with its ghosts, aliens, and all sorts of creatures. It's just a spell down the road as well.

so this area is ripe for weirdness and given all the military operations in the area that only increases the chances of high strangeness now we might have come up short in our search for similar sightings we didn't find any other reports of someone seeing something like this anywhere along the 60 freeway not now and not back in the early 90s but what we did stumble upon might even be scarier

Because in the late 80s and early 90s, there was an active serial killer in the Inland Empire, which is where Moreno Valley is. His name is Ivan Hill, and he used the 60 as his hunting grounds, where he murdered and assaulted at least eight women. And it's verified that he was active during this period. The police suspect his killing spree lasted between 1986 and 1994, exactly when Matt had his experience.

And Ivan earned himself a nickname, as most prolific serial killers do. They called him the 60 Freeway Killer, the exact freeway that Matt was on during his experience. Now here comes the eerie tie-in. Not only did Hill hunt along this corridor, he also dumped bodies there as well. All women, typically naked, bound and gagged, dumped on the side of the road.

So could that be what Matt saw when he was younger? The bloated, sun-scorched body of one of Hill's unfortunate victims? I sure hope not. This kind of thing is a lot more fun when it's aliens and monsters in the darkness. We seem to forget that real-life monsters often appear in the shape of a human being. Now it is worth noting that Hill was caught and is currently awaiting execution. So at least there's that. Now this was quite the note to end on.

But here we are, folks. The very first, and probably not the last, the MAU campout. Now I really hope you had a good time with this special episode. My crew and I worked very hard to put this together. But no matter how good the last one was, it's always on to the next one. And speaking of the next one, I'll see you all on Tuesday with a Texas-sized brand new episode. But until then, remember...

Only you can prevent forest fires. Keep it spooky and have a great night.