S1 Ep5: Something's Watching

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Astonishing Legends Network. The views and opinions expressed by hosts and listeners on the Astonishing Dead Letter office are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of Astonishing Legends Productions, the Astonishing Legends Network, or any affiliated entities or guests. When something unexplainable happens to you, it can make you feel isolated or alone. But trust us, you're not. For over a decade, you've been sending your strange stories to Astonishing Legends. And now it's time for our fellow legenders to hear them too. Join us weekly in the vault beneath Blanket Fortiana, which we call The Astonishing Dead Letter Office. Tonight's episode, Something's Watching. In June of 2022, we did a show called Your True Stories, Volume 1, which is part of what led us to want to create the Dead Letter Office. So many of you have such great stories, and we know that your fellow legenders will want to hear them. That show featured a guest named Tom Delaney, who is a hunter and had some pretty amazing encounters in central Pennsylvania, including coming across a strange, large structure in a remote area of the woods that did not appear to have been built by human beings. A possible Bigfoot nest? Yeah, that was just one of several events Tom came across in that part of Pennsylvania. Well, tonight, we're going to hear from Jordan, an experienced hunter who crossed paths with something frightening just a few miles from where Tom's encounter was, and probably within a few months' time, based on the details Tom had shared on Astonishing Legends back in June of 22. I hunt the same public land where Tom Delaney had his experiences, and I have had some strange occurrences of my own. I live in central PA and have been an avid outdoorsman and bowhunter for over 20 years. I have a scientific background, including a PhD in biochemistry and molecular biology, but I have always had a closeted interest in Bigfoot. I've always found witness testimony compelling and consider myself a hopeful skeptic. Bigfoot, if discovered to be real, would be among the most fascinating scientific discoveries in human history. Anyhow, here it goes. It was the fall of 2017, or 2018, and I was bowhunting for deer approximately 10 miles as the crow flies from where Tom saw the purported Bigfoot nest. He would have had his experience only a few months before or after this took place. I got settled into my tree stand between 3 and 4 p.m. and would have about 3 and a half to 4 hours of hunting before sundown. The early afternoon was calm, sunny, and unseasonably warm. After about 30 minutes in the tree, I heard what I thought was the hooting of an owl approximately 50 yards to my 2 o'clock position. It sounded so close to me that I was surprised that I could not get a visual of the owl, not with my naked eye or my binoculars. I chalked it up to obstruction of the trees between me and it and heard it hoot on two other occasions, moving farther away as it traveled from my 2 o'clock to my 1 o'clock and finally to my 11 o'clock position. I thought it odd that an owl was hooting so early in the day, but otherwise thought it to be absolutely normal. About an hour after that, the wind picked up pretty badly and I was worried a storm might be blowing in. The tree I had climbed was swaying rather violently in the wind. The tree was about a foot to a foot and a half in diameter and I was about 20 feet off the ground. The wind gusts were strong enough to cause me to sway nearly a foot back and forth in my position in the tree. I considered giving up on the outing, but decided to stick it out because my work schedule wasn't going to afford me many more trips out to the woods that bow season. Nothing else of particular interest happened that evening until sundown. The wind had died down to a gentle breeze. At sunset, I unknocked my arrow, clipped it into my quiver, and lowered my bow to the ground. I got all set to descend the tree in my climber and made my first couple of maneuvers of descent. At this point, I was about 15 feet off the ground, facing the tree trunk. I heard movement through the leaf litter behind me at a distance of 50 to 70 yards. At this point, I lost quite a bit of light and could not get a visual on what I heard. But I assumed it to be a deer or two based on the sound. After pausing my descent and looking for the deer for a little while, I decided to continue down out of the tree as slowly and as quietly as possible, hoping not to spook the deer and spoil the hunting spot for future outings. At the base of the tree, I quietly packed my stand onto my back and grabbed my bow. The deer had been moving in the direction of my vehicle, so I decided to walk in a J-shaped hook back to my vehicle in an attempt not to spook them. By this time, it was quite dark. I could see about 10 yards with my naked eye. I carried an LED flashlight that could either cast a broad beam of light or a focused beam of light like a spotlight if you slid the lens forward with your thumb. For the time being, I kept the light off, using what little natural light was left to navigate because I really didn't want to spook those deer by turning on the light. After walking about 50 yards to the south, I intersected an old logging road and I decided to take it west in the direction of my vehicle. As I tiptoed down that logging road as quietly as I could, the hair on the back of my neck suddenly stood up and goosebumps arose on my arms and legs. Although no stimulus from my five senses detected anything out of the ordinary, my sixth sense went into full alarm. The woods were abnormally silent. The wind, which had so violently assaulted me in my tree stand for hours that evening, now was completely non-existent. All was calm and quiet, but internally I was extremely frightened for no apparent reason. I continued down the logging road quietly, but I was nearly panicking despite my rational mind telling myself that nothing was wrong. After a few more steps, I couldn't take it anymore. I began walking with heavy footfalls and I turned on my light, first scanning 360 degrees around me with a broad light, then sweeping again in the distance with a focused spotlight beam. Nothing but forest. All normal. I still could not calm my nerves. I walked loudly with a brisk, deliberate pace and the flashlight on. Suddenly, about 30 to 40 yards to my right, a large tree fell in a long, loud, drawn-out, dramatic crash. It probably took three to five seconds from the first few cracks of splintering wood to the final ground-rumbling crash. I stopped and scanned the direction from which the sound emanated with my light in spotlight mode, but I was unable to detect any movement whatsoever as the tree went down. I could see nothing but still, calm woods, despite the cacophony of sound hitting my eardrums. When the noise ceased, I continued to walk briskly to my vehicle and made it there without incident. I tossed my gear in quickly, hopped in the driver's seat, and locked the doors before starting the car and getting out of there. There are a few odd things about this night. One, there are few moments that I have ever been scared in the woods, and I commonly walk in and out of hunting spots in darkness. On this night, I was frightened before the tree fell, without any perceived reason to be scared. Two, this tree did not fall during the violent winds earlier in the evening, but did fall in the quiet, calmness thereafter. Three, I didn't see the tree fall, but it sounded very close to me. I was in a bit of a clearing along this logging road. The tree line started about 20 yards to my right. The forest wasn't horribly thick in this area, and it sounded as though the falling tree, and presumably the other trees getting struck by the falling tree, was only about 10 to 20 yards beyond the tree line. I'm baffled by my experience and couldn't help but be reminded of my odd experience when I heard Tom's description of anomalous tree damage and his experience of hearing without seeing in the same general area. I love this story. These stories are so fascinating to me, and it comes back to the whole Bigfoot thing, which people are just, oh, Bigfoot again. But we're famous for a large multi-part series on that, so you know it's going to come up as long as we're on the air. But also, Tom's story and then Jordan's story here, they're taking place in the same area and in the same time frame. And I've brought this up on the show a million times before, but it was a Radiolab short called Wild Talk about a journalist who was studying how, I think, the monkeys were communicating in the jungle. Like, I can't remember if it was the Amazon or where he was, trying to get messages from their language. And it was during the course of writing that piece that he realized he was being stalked by what was likely some kind of cat, a large cat. And he only knew that because of what he was perceiving from how the monkeys were communicating, not only to each other, but he felt that they were trying to warn him. Another primate. Yeah. Yeah. It's just like, dude, look out. And so later, what he concluded was that he was being stalked. Not only was something following him, but it was all the way across a valley. It was on a hill across from him, but it was pacing him. Yeah. So then you've got this story with Jordan here talking about what is this thing? Can't see it, but I know it's there. You've got a guy with all this experience in the woods. It's no fear, spending all night out there in deer stands, doing whatever, been out a billion times. These folks know what they're experiencing, you know, and that comes back to Kelly Hopkinsville and stories we talked about like, well, it was just this and it was just that. And it's like you, that person making that supposition would have no idea what they were doing if they were dropped off in the woods. This guy does. He knows what to look for and listen for. And he knows that something isn't right. And as you've said on this show frequently on Dead Letter Office already, and also have said on Astonishing Legends over the years, trust your gut. And he wants to trust his gut, you know, but this story, it's unnerving. Yeah. Because you don't know what you're facing. I've also told this story just a few times though, a long time ago, years ago. One of the few paranormal experiences I've had was hearing a deep guttural growl looking at that the desert and all the Joshua trees as the sun was, it wasn't setting, it was still bright out, but it was probably like four o'clock in the afternoon. So, you know, another three or four hours of sunlight, you know, this is the end of a parking lot where it just goes into the desert. There's nothing around. Nothing is taller than like maybe two feet. Maybe it's a boulder, one or two feet tall. That's it. The rest of it's pretty flat. And we hear this growl. And for me, analyzing and thinking back on how I felt about it, what was most unnerving was that I didn't know where that was coming from. Again, it didn't sound like an otherworldly, it sounded like an animal, like a big jungle cat, as you were talking about, or, you know, a lion or tiger. It was a deep guttural growl, not Leo the lion from the MGM opening logo, but it was just a growl like, I'm here, you should go away. And again, what was unnerving is that we didn't like, should we go on top of the car, underneath the car? Like, how do you protect yourself from that? And so that was a very unnerving feeling. And when you can't see what you're hearing and before you even hear anything, well, now you're hearing silence and that's unnerving where it was windy and noisy before. And you're presumably hearing a lot of animal sounds. Now it's nothing. Well, except for the owl, the owls know that's another telltale sign here. The, the owls in the daytime hooting the messengers, maybe they aren't, uh, the owls are not what they seem, but here it does make me wonder it could be connected definitely to Bigfoot or maybe it's some other kind of phenomenon. That's my takeaway from the telling of this story is that it could be connected to the appearance of a Bigfoot or something else that also brings danger. And that, that sense of a fight or flight. That's a really good point for us. I'm so glad you said that because that makes me think both in Jordan's case here and then Tom's case before we're all classifying this, them, you know, it's seemingly them. Maybe they're not saying, I don't know, put words in their mouths, but you know, we've, we've heard their stories, but us as well. And then people that listen to our show and our friends who are much more involved in Bigfoot stories like Micah Hanks and stuff like that. You might say, well, this fits all those characteristics, but in both of these stories, which are freaky and then there's physical evidence, you know, in Tom's case, he saw this nest or this type of structure where there shouldn't have been one, all of these other things. None of them saw anything. Neither one of them saw a Bigfoot. So what's, who's not to say, yeah, you know what? Bigfoot doesn't exist. This is something else that we don't have any idea what it is. None. And, and we're making a mistake putting it in the Bigfoot column. Well, like I said, it could definitely be connected to the sighting of the phenomenon. Now you have two distinct camps of people who are Bigfooters and that one is just an extant unknown primate, just an ape man in the woods. And we just never cataloged one, found one dead, taxidermied one. We've encountered one, but science has not cataloged one. You know what I'm saying? So it's out there, but it's really just a man ape, the wood ape. Yeah. The North American wood ape. On the other hand, you have other people. And again, they really disagree on this one. The other camp believes that there is a possible paranormal aspect to this creature and that it comes in and out of our existence. It's connected to UFOs somehow it's connected to other cryptids, uh, dogmen, wolfmen. And there's something about it that is almost supernatural about its presence. Have you heard about, uh, invasion of Chestnut Ridge? Look for smalltownmonsters.com and find that film. Seth Breed loves company who does a monster fest and a good friend of ours. Yeah. Yeah. People shoot it. The older lady on the porch and it was this Bigfoot type creature was messing with her can collection. So she blasted with a shotgun on her porch and she claimed it made a flash, like a flash bulb from a camera and just vanished. Or the two young men who saw it along the fence line and one thinks he shot it and it, I think there was a green glow that flashed when he did. Well, again, we're looking at, and we've already heard it on an earlier episode of the Dead Letter Office. We are looking at like those folks, that couple that's both saw something freaky, but completely different. Yeah. And this idea that maybe these things are appearing when they do appear to look like Bigfoot, because whatever it is that is manifesting knows that we're all freaked out about Bigfoot. And that's like, choose a form. And okay, I choose a form. I'm going to be an eight foot tall, smelly, hairy monster. But in this case, again, neither one of these two guys actually saw anything. They only heard something and they felt like they were being stalked. Well, here's the biggest tell for me that something is not right or not natural, even if it's a wood ape knocking over a tree, is that there's a big tree that crashes over. Now, if you've ever seen this just on video, you'll know that a lot of dust and leaves and pine needles and whatever flies up into the air. Sometimes a lot of birds and squirrels. It makes a big entrance when a tree falls over. Because also it's knocking over other trees nearby and cracking branches. And you notice it rather than just hearing it. The fact that he didn't see anything, he just heard it. That's very odd to me. That makes it otherworldly in a way. But also it comes with that feeling. Like I said, hunters know when you come across a large animal, certainly if you're bow hunting for bear, hey, this is a beast that could rip you apart. And there is maybe a little trepidation, a little healthy fear, but it's an animal. You know how to handle it. You have the upper edge as a human with a weapon. Yeah, that's a little of the excitement here. But this is that paranormal supernatural feeling in your gut. Like something's not right here. Like I should not be here. It wants me to leave, whatever this thing is. Well, hunters, if you're out there and you have stories like this, send them in to deadletterofficeatastonishinglegends.com. Jordan, thank you so much for sharing your story. And while we're sure you already know this, always trust your instincts. You were right to take caution, even if you never directly saw a threat. The Astonishing Dead Letter Office is hosted by Scott Philbrook and Forrest Burgess and is executive produced by Tess Feifel. The show is edited and mixed by Sarah Voorhees-Wendell at VW Sound. The theme is based on the Astonishing Legends theme by Judson Crane at Founder Music, arranged by Alan Carissia, who composes all the other music in the show. Tommy Beaver Design created the logo. The announcer is John Bolton. That's me. Stories are lightly edited for length, content, and readability, but otherwise presented as they're sent to us. We're always looking for more Dead Letters, so if you have a story of your own you'd like to share, email it to deadletterofficeatastonishinglegends.com. Please include how you would like to be credited. First name only? First name last initial? Anonymous? A pseudonym? Let us know. Due to the number of emails coming in, we often cannot respond, but we do read them all. No part of this show may be reproduced anywhere without permission. Copyright, Astonishing Legends Productions. Protein bars often feel like you're choosing between taste and nutrition. 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