Kevin writes "Lets jump to my first possible encounter. Age 16 roughly 1999, my buddy gets his first vehicle ( a Chevy S10 ). That summer we decided we're going to take our first trip to the boundary waters. Another buddy decided he was going to join us as well. Here we are three 16yr old boys, our gear, and a canoe packed into this tiny truck.
We entered the BWCA through the Larch Creek access point on the Gunflint Trail. We spent the next couple days portaging deeper into the wilderness. I don't remember exactly which night of the trip this happened, but it was towards the middle. It was late or early how've good like to think of it and I had to pee. There was a bright moon out, bright enough that I didn't need to bring a flashlight. I didn't stray far from the tent. I found a random rock to pee on and let it fly. This is when I found out my target rock was not a rock at all. It let out a disgusted grunt or breath in not sure which. It went from what I can only imagine was a belly crawl to upright in a blink of and eye and took off running. In the moment I thought I had just peed on a bear cub and that momma was going to be really pissed off. I ran for the tent and got back in. Originally I was closest to the opening of the tent. I got in my sleeping bag and bounced into the middle of my two buddies. Not my proudest moment I'll admit. Well this of course woke them up and after some heated words and a plee on my end, they realized I must have seen something as I was visibly shaken and my eyes were watering from the adrenaline dumping into me and an irrational fear. That night something did come into our camp but without further known incident and nothing further to report.
Thinking back on this experience with a clear head, a few things stand out to me. Why did the bear cub come up off the ground and run off like a human or was it the moon light playing tricks? Why the disgust in its tone of exhale an animal wouldn't have that emotion? And why did I panic like I did? I've seen full grown black bear in the wild up close and personal while hunting both in the dark and in the light. I've seen a sow and her cubs and had to talk her down at close range from making a decision that was either going to harm her or myself. There was a irrational fear that came over me.
Encounter #2 ( made into a knower not just a believer )
Roughly the summer of 2004 maybe 2005. Like I started in the beginning of my email, I'm an avid outdoorsman. During the summers I live to spend my nights in my boat on the river. Whether alone or with a buddy. This particular night my buddy and I were fishing this barge bay. We run the river full speed at night so I have large HID lights mounted on the front of my boat light truck headlights. We were anchored maybe 15'-20' off shore. One side of the bay was barging equipment, the other old growth Cottonwoods to which the bow of my boat was facing. These old growth trees are huge!
So here we are, middle of the night, sitting in my boat in the pitch black. We start hearing movement coming from in the Cottonwoods. I should mention the river banks mainly consist of river silt which dampens sound. The sounds of bipedal walking are getting closer and louder. Again, panic is starting to set in. And again, I do not panic, I'm very calm under pressure. But here I am panicking. Again, it's that irrational fear, eyes watering, chest feels like it's slow motion beating out of my chest. Everything seems to slow down yet speed up at the same time. My buddy is clearly experiencing the same emotions. I flip my headlights on and standing directly in front of us is this gigantic man. You could see the shock in his eyes and on his face when the lights suddenly are turned on and he's caught directly in the beam. He did his best to hide behind a Cottonwood, but he was too large to truly hide behind it. Again, these trees are anywhere between 4'-6' around at the base. Even with having my sidearm on me it never entered my mind that I had it. All I could do was push my buddy out of the way and pull up the anchor and get the hell out of there.
We did return a week later. I'm 6'3 220lbs, I'm not small. I stood in the exact spot we saw it and this thing had to be at least a foot maybe foot and a half taller then I and hundreds of pounds heavier. I remember it was dark on color and very hairy. It face was ape like but at the same time humanoid. There was no doubt it was experiencing the same shock, terror, and confusion as we were. And no I'm not projecting human traits into this thing. It was clearly intelligent enough to have those emotions while at the same time knowing to hide and curious enough to pop his head around the tree to watch what we were doing. I do not remember finding any other evidence at that time.
Findings May 4th 2015
I decided to go out for a morning hike. The location is very strange for such evidence ( see attached photos ) but again within a few miles of my 2004 or 2005 sighting. I can share actual locations if you'd like to discuss further.
While on my hike I was hiking a ridge line away from the paved trail. This is when I came across a tree that was snapped and twisted close to the ground. I'm the photo you can see they are not tiny trees. The amount of force needed to do that damage to a live green tree would be more than any man could ever summon. After finding these trees I was instantly in Investigator mode. This is when I found the print, like I was saying I'm 6'3 220lbs and wear a size 13.5 boot. I oddly enough only found one track but it was roughly 3-4" longer than my boot. I tried to make an impression in the ground but the ground was far too hard as it's still pretty chilly at this time of year in Minnesota.
Encounter #3 ( things get strange )
It's 2018, rifle deer opener. We hunt a very remote area at the end of an old logging road surrounded by Peet bog. One way in one way out. It's not possible to make it through the bogs alive. It's truly one way in or out.
We always get up there a couple days prior to opening day. Allows us time to fully set up camp, stands, and do some grouse hunting. It's Thursday night, earlier in the day we had shot a bunch of grouse and cleaned the and through the remains at the end of the woods line in front of our camp.
So here we are three of us experienced hunters and skilled outdoorsman sitting around the campfire. It's not super late maybe 2230-2300hrs, but it's plenty dark out. Sun is long gone and there's no light other than the fire glow. I don't remember which of us noticed the lights first, but I'm the protector and was instantly up or off my chair and sidearm was drawn. What we saw was two balls of light far off into the woods. The light color was that of an old lantern. We thought folks were walking towards us with only a lantern. Again, no one should've been able to make it to their location without us noticing. That's when they went out and everything went dead silent. No bugs, owls, birds, coyotes, or wolves. All which we hear on a nightly basis on a normal night. If a gnat would have dated I would've blamed it on one of my buddies it was that quiet. That's when we start hearing walking in front of us in the woods. Same direction as the lights and dead grouse carcasses were discarded.
At this point one of my two buddies is out of his chair and moving to my location weapon drawn. So here we stand weapons drawn flashlights pointing in the sound direction. We can still hear the walking but cannot see anything. At the same time the walking stops we hear a voice come from directly behind camp. Very similar to what people describe as the samurai speech. It sounds like someone's trying to speak gibberish but only speaking from the back of their throats. Like a Mongolian throat singer. At this point my other buddy out now or of his chair and weapon drawn setting as the sound seemed to come from only 20' behind him. At the same time myself and my buddy standing next to me spun around to not knowing we were surrounded. This is when the walking that was in front of us took off running, the gibberish continues and then from our now left side a tree cracks and falls. The gibberish stops. And everything seems to grow still again. Needless to say if was a sleepless night.
Interesting side note, that impending doom feels did not happen on this experience. In the morning we did find the fallen tree, it was dead but it was the tree we use to site our rifles in on.
I should also make mention this year 2024 will mark year 27 that one of the buddies in the story and I have hunted this area. We've been hunting this area with his dad since we were kids. My wife and daughter do not like it up there and get very freaked out. My boys and I have had another incident that I could tell but I'll leave that for another time if you want. I've also had two other experiences with another buddy.
Sorry for rambling, it's hard to get a lifetime in 1 email. I recently shifted work gears and I started driving dump truck. I needed a break from leading and directing employees and having the sole responsibilities of a 1.2 million sq ft building on 46 acres for the last 20 years. Driving has allowed a lot of pressure to be lifted off my shoulders, but also has allowed me to listen to your podcast and give me the encouragement to finally tell my experiences. Until now I have never formally told anyone. Yes, my buddies, family have heard most of them but never publicly. Again, sorry for the novel, hopefully I didn't waste too much of your time."
