An East Tennessee outdoorsman details his experience with what he first thought were people messing with him while hiking in the Great Smoky Mountains. Now, he wonders if Bigfoot exists.
I received the following account:
"I am an avid hiker in East Tennessee and I've hiked most of the trails in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. I've had many wild boar encounters. I'm not easily spooked nor do I feel uneasy being alone in the woods, but I will admit that one incident left me feeling a bit weird.
I was hiking a trail in the mountains near Tremont, Tennessee in July of 2019. It was an unusually warm morning and the wind was blowing. I could tell the storm was coming but I thought I could get a 10-mile hike in before it got here. The trail I was hiking was steep and there was a good-sized creek I would have to cross that was about knee-deep. I was keeping a close eye on the weather and making good time.
At about three-quarters of a mile from my turn-around point, I heard brush breaking above me on the side of the mountain. It sounded like more than one of something or someone was walking not running. I stopped to listen but the wind picked up so I couldn't hear anything. When the wind died down I heard brush breaking again. The side of the mountain was covered with rhododendron so I couldn't see more than 30 yards up the mountainside. The wind picked up again and I headed on thinking it was probably a bear, a hog, a deer, or maybe even a person. But by the time I reached the turn-around and started back down the trail, the weather was getting worse.
When I reached the spot where I had heard the brush breaking earlier I heard what sounded like people talking gibberish. I thought, 'Okay, it was people breaking brush on the mountainside. That's no big deal.' I've heard this gibberish before and most times I will eventually meet with a group of people somewhere on the trail. But as I came around the bend in the trail where my mind said I should have seen people there was no one there. I stopped again to listen. The wind began to pick up but I could faintly hear the gibberish. I waited a minute for the wind to die down and when I did I could hear the gibberish much clearer. It was like listening to a conversation that was just far enough away not to be able to make out the words, but it was close enough that I felt like I should have been able to. I was puzzled.
At the point where I turned around, there was an unmaintained trail that goes to an old fire tower site. I thought maybe someone had tried to follow it and gotten turned around. Most people go there in the winter months because it's so overgrown. I thought that maybe I should yell at them to let them know where the trail was. This entire time the wind was gusting in my face. If I yelled at that point no one would hear me anyway, so I waited for a break. When I could hear the gibberish again, I yelled, "Hey!" The second I did that the gibberish stopped. The distance I was covering was 10 yards up and down the trail. I was facing up the mountainside with my right up the trail and my left down the trail. There was a small creek behind me that was little more than a trickle and as soon as the gibberish stopped I heard movement to my right up the mountainside.
I moved in that direction looking up the hill. I was thinking I should bark like a dog. I've done this many times while hiking and it has always successfully scared the crap out of people. As soon as I did I heard something to my left. Something was coming through the tree canopy and a rock landed in the creek behind me. I could hear more than one of whoever or whatever was moving above me. That rock made me mad and I thought that these knuckleheads were throwing rocks at me. I moved down the trail to where the rock landed. The water was still muddy. I picked up the rock and threw it back yelling, "Stop throwing rocks at me!" I was looking up the hillside to my right near where I had just been. I heard a whistle and I quickly ran back over to try to catch the culprit. The brush right above where I had just been standing exploded with a loud crash. I turned and ran back in that direction. As soon as I did something loud crashed through the brush to my right and around the bend.
From where I was something had crossed the trail from the creek and was headed up the mountainside. I ran up the trail as fast as I could to try to see what it was but I wasn't fast enough. I couldn't see any tracks but the hillside was alive with activity. The brush was breaking like crazy and I could tell it was moving. I've always thought that if I ever come across something I couldn't explain or see I would try and track it down but that was not the case. I didn't want to follow this thing nor could I have kept up with it if I had wanted to. I remember standing there thinking that I had just been played. I didn't know which way was up.
For a moment something inside me said that I should move on down the trail. So I did and from then on I didn't see anything. So I guess it could have been people. But I guess I'll never know. But whatever it was it could whistle and throw rocks.
Every time I'm hiking alone now and I hear the gibberish ahead of me, I think about that incident and I think to myself here we go again. Then one day I was talking to an old-timer who told me that the gibberish and rock-throwing was the 'Wild Men', namely Bigfoot. I never wanted to believe in the phenomenon and I had never seen any indication that Bigfoot existed previously. Now, I'm not sure what to believe." B
Beyond Boggy Creek: In Search of the Southern Sasquatch
Sharing the Mountain with Bigfoot: The First Year (Bigfoot Series)
Bigfoot and Eastern Cousins
Bigfoot Nation: The History of Sasquatch in North America
The Bigfoot Book: The Encyclopedia of Sasquatch, Yeti and Cryptid Primates
ALIEN DISCLOSURE: EXPERIENCERS EXPOSE REALITY - Audiobook
Feel Free to Post PHANTOMS & MONSTERS DIRECT LINKS ON YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA & WEBSITE. Thanks For Your Support!
.jpg)
Your financial support of Phantoms & Monsters and our other pursuits is much appreciated. Please click the banner above. Thanks.
.jpg)
