A New Jersey man is forced to camp in the Pine Barrens for several nights. On the last night, he has a terrifying encounter with a rancid-smelling Bigfoot that insists on exploring his campsite.
The following account was recently forwarded to me:
"On November 28th of 2014 my life sort of fell apart all at once. In a matter of one day I lost my job, my business, my company car and my place to live for reasons that I won’t go into detail about here. Let’s just say that I was screwed over by my business partner and that’s that.
At the time I had just enough money to either buy a junker vehicle or put down a security deposit and first months rent on an apartment. I’m a rather resourceful guy and I opted for the vehicle. I figured a car was a better move as I could live in it for as long as it took to get my life together and it would give me more options for finding a new job.
I had lost everything but, I had two things...a full set of camping gear and a girlfriend who still loved me, so I figured I could rough it outside in the cold winter nights until I found a new car and a job.
At the time I had been living in a town that was located on the edge of the Pine Barrens wilderness of southern New Jersey. For those who have never heard of it, the Pine Barrens is a rather unique one million acre forest of mostly pine trees that has lots of deer, turkey, coyotes and some unique prehistoric type plants that only grow in that area.
My girlfriend at the time lived with her parents and despite the fact that they barely knew me she had convinced them to take me in. But I was uncomfortable with that idea and refused the offer. As you can imagine my girlfriend was beside herself with worry but she knew I was too proud and just accepted my crazy decision to live outdoors in the winter time.
I chose a spot on the edge of the neighborhood that I had been previously living in near a dirt storage clearing that was being used to dump and store dirt to build a new development of homes. I found a large path into the woods and made a stealth camp only about a quarter mile deep into the Pine Barrens.
I would sleep in the woods at night and in the morning I would make the short walk into civilization where my woman would pick me up. Once she came to get me I would use her car to drive her to work and then spend the day looking for a vehicle and a new job. I would also take an hour or so to head to the gym to workout and get a shower each day. Around 5pm I would pick her up at work and she would drop me back off near my campsite.
Wednesday, December 3rd was to be my 5th and final night in that particular patch of woods. By then I had found a job that I was to start in a few weeks and had purchased an old SUV. It was still at the used car lot as my new car insurance would not be active until the following day. My new job didn’t start for a month but I had already paid for a real campsite far away in another area of the Pine Barrens that I could live in until then. This way I could have big fires, ride my mountain bike through the trails, and not have to sneak in and out each morning and evening. So December 3, 2014 was my last night at my stealth camp on the edge of town.
To this day I enjoy winter camping and even then I had done so many times in my life, so I had a routine setup I used to camp in cold weather. I always encapsulate my tent with a large, heavy duty camo tarp. This keeps the weather out very effectively, it also helps to trap a little heat for comfort, but unfortunately makes it so that you cannot see outside without lifting the tarp up at your tent entrance to look around.
By 8PM or so I had finished eating and was relaxing just puffing on my vape and feeling happy that I would be in a much more comfortable situation the next day. Just like every other night at this location at this time of night a pack of coyotes was right outside my tent making a ruckus. The first two nights I was sort of shocked but by this time. But, I was used to them and was sure they didn’t dare attack a full grown human. But I still slept with a 26 inch, very sharp, full tang short sword at my side each night just in case.
I was lying on my back in the tent starting to doze off to the sound of the coyote pack when they all started yipping and suddenly ran off into the deep woods together. During the previous nights they would slowly leave the area as a group continuing to scrap and and circle the general area, so this sudden departure sort of piqued my interest and I opened my eyes to listen. It was dead silent.
After a minute or so I started getting ready to doze off again when a powerful and unpleasant stench filled my tent. I can’t begin to explain how overwhelming and terrible the stench was. I sat up in my tent and stuck my face inside my coat to escape it. It was no use. There was no escaping the smell. It was a combination of extremely bad body odor mixed with skunk and feces.
I was too overwhelmed by the odor to even ponder what was making it. It was strong enough to make me feel sick. I remember at one point trying to avoid the smell by breathing through my mouth and the odor was so strong that I could taste it on the tip of my tongue. I was at the point of holding my breath and whatever it was that was stinking up my campsite needed to go the hell away, so I decided to go outside my tent and run whatever it was off.
I unsheathed my sword and started to unzip the tent entrance when I hear someone walking down the path in the woods that was located behind my camp. I say SOMEONE instead of SOMETHING because it was clearly a person walking on two feet.
I slowly zipped the tent back up and went silent. The path was pretty well-traveled during the day by locals walking their dogs and by neighborhood kids, but this was the first time at night that I had heard anyone using the path. Whoever it was was big and heavy because I could actually hear the thud of their feet impacting the dirt path with each step. I had made my stealth camp pretty close to the path for ease of use, but I had camouflaged it so well behind an earth mound with brush and a camo tarp that one could walk within a few yards of it and not see it.
The footsteps stopped and then I heard the unmistakable sound of whoever it was leave the dirt path and slowly walk into the woods behind me to my left. My heart sank and adrenaline filled my bloodstream. I had made it for 4 nights undetected and on my last night I was about to be found out. I’m sure I was on some kind of private property and with all crap going on in my life at the time, the LAST thing I needed was for the cops to arrest me and break up my camp.
Like I said my camp was well-hidden and it showed no signs of anyone being there while I was gone, so I was wondering why this person was heading towards me. This whole time the stench was just as strong as ever but had taken backstage in my mind to the current new situation at hand.
I could hear whoever it was carefully and slowly walking closer and closer until they were maybe 20 feet off to my left. They sounded like the footsteps of someone trying to sneak up on something or someone else. They stopped at my left side for a moment and them started to walk at a normal noisy pace through the leaves until they were about 15 or 20 yards from my tent in the area where the coyotes would congregate each night. Then they stopped. I could hear deep horse breathing, like a giant monster catching its breath. I was paralyzed with fear and my heart was pounding out of my chest.
Then it walked right up to the front of my tent. I clutched my blade and held my breath. Next, whatever it was, walked very slowly around to the right side of my tent. Still breathing deep and heavy. Then it leaned itself right up to the wall of my tent and started to sniff loudly. It took long deep sniffing noises through its nose and would exhale through its mouth. I was terrified as its face was just feet away from me. At this point I was growing confused, the only logical thing I could think of was that a bear was right outside of my tent. But the thing is that bears are almost non-existent in the Pine Barrens, especially so close to a busy construction site. But I thought to myself “what else could it be?”
Nothing was making sense. I was SURE that I had heard a person on two feet walking this whole time. But no human, no matter how dirty and homeless, could smell that powerfully. Plus, the breathing I was hearing sounded more like a giant monster than a human. But monsters aren’t real right? So I rationalized that it HAD to be a bear.
At this point I had to do something, I figured I would say something out loud. If it was a giant smelly person I could probably get a response, and if it was indeed a bear there was a 99.99% chance it would run for its life once it realized there was a human in the tent. One thing I knew was that black bears are terrified of humans.
So I took a deep breath and said loudly and sharply, “WHO’S THERE!” And then I whacked the side of the tent it was standing at with a hard and quick back hand.
The thing took two steps back and to my absolute horror it let out the deepest most terrifying growl I have ever heard. At this point, my heart stopped and I almost soiled my pants. It was a LONG and VERY DEEP growl, just like a dogs, but sounded like a dog that would have to weigh 800 pounds.
I sat there with my blade poised, in shock, terrified and waited for whatever it was to rip through the tarp and kill me on the spot. After what was probably a 5 to 10 second growl. Then it went silent and all I could hear was the deafening noise of my pulse pounding in my head. Then suddenly to my surprise it walked away into the forest. I could hear the sound of a creature on two legs crushing the dried leaves and twigs underfoot as it walked away.
I stayed perfectly still holding my breath until I could not hear it walking anymore. Then I took a deep breath and almost collapsed with relief in the tent. The horrible stench began to get less and less until it finally went away.
I was feeling relieved and my heart was starting to finally calm down, when suddenly I heard the sound of what could only be a large tree branch being snapped quickly from a tree, or snapped in half followed by it being smashed into a tree or other piece of wood. Right after that it made a noise that sounded like a single very loud dog bark followed what I can only describe as the sound of a woman screaming. My heart jumped to full turbo mode once again and I broke out into a cold sweat.
After that, I heard nothing else, and it took a good 20 minutes for me to calm down. When the adrenaline finally subsided I was overwhelmed with exhaustion. I reasoned that if it wanted to do me harm it would have and at this point it was safe to fall asleep.
Interestingly, I had one of the best nights sleep I have ever had. In the morning, I packed everything up and got out of there. When my girlfriend picked me up that morning she took one look at me and asked me why I looked so disturbed. I told her what had happened and she said it must have been one of the coyotes and that I was being dramatic. To this day, the only people who believe me are my brother and my 13-year-old son.
I had always told myself it was a bear. I couldn’t come up with any other logical conclusion. But like I said, black bears are all but non-existent in the Pine Barrens. Also, since then I have done the research and have learned that bears do not have a strong odor at all, even during mating season or while hibernating. The thought of it being a Sasquatch never even crossed my mind at the time because I thought they only existed in the northwestern United States and Canada, that is if they existed at all. Besides, what would a mythical creature like that be doing hanging out next to a fairly populated New Jersey town like that.
Since then I have educated myself on Bigfoot and now I am pretty sure in was a Sasquatch that scared the crap out of me that night.
I suppose I will never really know. My life is now perfect and it’s hard to believe that just over five years ago I was homeless in the woods of New Jersey. I still like to go winter camping alone almost every year. But, now that I know monsters are real, I will only go to wilderness areas where I am allowed to carry a big bore revolver, 30.06 rifle or a 12 gauge with slugs." K
NOTE: Even though the New Jersey Pine Barrens is well-known for the Jersey Devil and mob body burials, I have received some horrifying Bigfoot encounters from there over the years. Lon
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LEE HAMPEL - 'BEAST OF BRAY ROAD' EXPERIENCER & RESEARCHER - PM Radio
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Lee Hampel is a retired math and physics teacher from Illinois, and owner of a mysterious 35-acre hayfield along Bray Road near Elkhorn, Wisconsin. His experiences and research were featured in Linda Godfrey's book 'Monsters Among Us' and in the Small Town Monsters' production 'The Bray Road Beast.' Over the years, Lee has conducted further research on his farm in an effort to discover more evidence related to the Beast of Bray Road phenomenon.
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