On the Trail of Bigfoot: The Journey (2021) - full transcript

[BIRDS AND INSECTS CHIRPING]

[SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC PLAYING]

SETH: I'm Seth Breedlove.

I make movies about strange
and unusual subjects.

In 2015,
I made a documentary

about an unknown
creature sighting

which occurred near the village
of Whitehall, New York,

called the Beast of Whitehall.

That story had introduced me
to a region of the country
I'd never been to before,

and one that's
frequently overlooked

even by East Coasters
like myself...



the Adirondacks.

In the years
since the film was released,

I constantly found myself
longing to go back.

In March of 2020,
the United States
was wracked by a virus

that had closed down
large swaths of the country.

Political leaders
and talking heads

urged people to stay indoors
and avoid the outside world.

As COVID-19 made its way
around the world,

I spent time at home
with my family

and put my energy into work
I could do from home.

Despite loving
the newfound abundance

of time I had to spend
with my wife and son,

I miss the adventure
and excitement
of being on the road,

filming documentaries
in new places,



and the hours I got
to spend in the forests.

So, while the rest of the world
pondered a future

full of quarantines
and four walls,

I began to make plans
for a journey

that I would take
with my friends Mark Matzke,
Mark's son Andy,

and Adam Duggan.

It would be a trip
that would reunite me
with the natural world...

and one that would take me back
to a subject

I've been locked away from
for nearly three months.

The search for Bigfoot.

[DISTORTED VOICES]

[INAUDIBLE]

[INAUDIBLE]

[INAUDIBLE]

The Adirondack region
of Upstate New York
is sprawling.

When I first came here in 2015,

I was completely unprepared
for what I found.

A wilderness that stretches
beyond the horizon
with pine forests,

endless rivers and streams,
and distant mountains.

Once we'd reached the park,
we met up with
Aleksandar Petakov,

a friend
and frequent collaborator

who moonlights as an adventurer
and explorer

when he isn't spending time
working on various
documentary projects.

When I described
this expedition to Aleks
and the rest of the crew,

I explained that we were
going to Upstate New York

to explore one of the largest
wild areas on the East Coast,

and one of the largest
protected forests
in the United States.

We weren't simply
going to find Bigfoot,
or evidence of the creature.

In fact, I was already
firmly in the camp

that they could,
and very probably,
did exist here,

if they existed anywhere.

The mission was two-fold,

and while Bigfoot
made up one part,

the other was something
I couldn't quite explain.

It was an idea,
an idea that even to this day,

I'm struggling
to put into words.

It involves nature
and man's desire

to be among the trees
and streams and mountains.

It's about Bigfoot
as a driving force

to reconnect
with the world outside
when we most need it.

And what better place
to reconnect
with the natural world

than a place
who's serene beauty
and rugged landscapes

seem painted
onto a blank canvas?

[BIRDS CHIRPING]

The Northeast has a rich history
of historical accounts,

if you want to attribute

a lot of the early wild man
sort of stories to Bigfoot.

New York Bigfoot reports
go back a long way,

certainly to the days
of the Native Americans,

in which they were called
Wendigo or stone giants...

uh, that's what
the Iroquois called them.

In more recent times,
after the settlers arrived,

newspaper reports
began to emerge

of wild man sightings
in New York State,

especially in the Adirondacks,
where there was a lot of
wilderness and still is.

So, if you were to
use a search engine

and look for
Bigfoot-type reports,

you wouldn't put "Bigfoot,"

you would put "creature"
or "weird bear" or "wild man."

And if you put "wild man" in,
you will get tons of hits.

As far as history goes,
I try and remain skeptical

because when it comes
to newspapers,

those are reporters,
they're trying to sell a paper.

But at the same time,
there are other
historical accounts,

like, take
Theodore Roosevelt's account,
for example.

He talks about a friend he had
who saw a creature
that looked a lot like Bigfoot.

So, I try and remain skeptical
when I hear stories like this.

So, we have various cases
and some are kind of celebrated.

We have the Vermont governor
named Jonas Galusha,

and he was able to actually
lead searching parties

after a creature called
Old Slipperyskin,

and that was in the 1770s,

and what he was banking on
was that if he brought
this creature in,

it would win him the election.

And he didn't, and it didn't.

In one of the earliest
encounters, really,
that's recorded at least,

uh, in a non-oral sort of
Native tradition, would've been
in Massachusetts.

There were...
there was a sighting,
I believe in the 1760s,

well before America
was even really a country.

It's interesting that you have
that back story
all throughout this area.

PAUL: And you have these flaps
of wild man sightings

going from the, uh, 1770s
right up to, you know,
the 1920s or so.

Throughout all of human history,

there've been these incidences
of monstrous creatures.

These, sort of, liminal beings,
whether it's trolls or ogres,

and they tend to inhabit
the forests and the swamps
and... And the mountains,

notably sort of
outside civilization.

And so, you've got
sort of two tropes.

Either the monster, like in...
Like Grendel and Beowulf...

comes from the, sort of outside
into the civilized space
and causes problems.

The other trope
is human beings that go

too far beyond
the civilized space
into the wild

where they either
encounter a monster,

or they undergo
some kind of trauma
that makes them into a monster.

Throughout all of human history,
there's been
this kind of dynamic

between the civilized space
and the wild and the monsters
that it contains,

and sort of a
necessary separation
between the two.

[RAVEN CROAKING]

SETH: It's important
to understand the layout

of the northeast portion
of the United States

because the geography
and terrain of the area
plays a key role

in where these creatures
are seen.

While southern New York
is known for being fertile,
flat, pasture land,

the northern part of the state
is rugged and wild,

with only the occasional
major metropolitan areas
such as Albany

breaking up
the acres and acres of forest.

The northernmost part
of the Adirondacks

is defined by a section called
the High Peaks Wilderness.

While I had visited
the Adirondack Park
three previous times,

I'd never managed
to make it to this area.

So, I set aside
the final two days of our trek

to work our way
to the High Peaks.

To the east of the Adirondacks
lies Vermont,

where the Adirondacks
spill into the Green Mountains,

and to the Northeast,
New Hampshire, where you have
the White Mountains,

another untamed,
rugged wilderness,

though one not quite
a sprawling as the Adirondacks.

To the southeast
is Western Massachusetts,

another destination
we would soon visit.

All of these areas
are connected
by forests and streams,

which, if there's anything
I've learned

in my brief time involved
in the search for Bigfoot,

it's that they always
follow the creeks.

[SHOUTS]

Did you hit your head already?

Dude, this thing is nuts.

This is as far as it goes, bud.

I mean, it doesn't look like
it's been carved.

-It's smooth over here,
like, it's really smooth.
-Yeah.

These are called
drip mine's rust.

[INDISTINCT TALKING]

The, the... first time
I came in here,

like the thing that's crazy
to me about the Adirondacks

is you don't... I don't think
you hear as much
about this area...

but having been
in like the Pacific Northwest

and like the Olympic Peninsula
and all that stuff,

there's a lot of similarities
between the two,

in that you've got this,
like huge, vast...
essentially like an ecosystem

where things can exist
and live off the land

and no one has to know
anything's here.

It's like you can stick
five of the biggest
national parks

-within the boundaries of...
-Right.

...of this park.

I've heard Yosemite,

-this is bigger than Yosemite,
this whole area.
-Mmm-hmm.

Here you have New York,
but it's like still
a four-hour drive from the city.

So, uh, that's why I think
you do hear some of these
reports from this area.

Just always been
really interesting to me.

I've never really had
a chance to explore it

aside from Whitehall
on the, kind of, periphery,

so, really exciting,
just be here

and see
all the different wildlife...

and, kind of,
what similarities it has
to other areas,

but how different it is, too.

The thing I was surprised by,
and probably
shouldn't have been,

is the fact that
there's a lot of lakes

just interspersed
between the peaks,

and that when you said
about the Pacific Northwest,

that's what reminded me
of that, as well.

When I started Adirondacks,
I just thought...
like, Great Smokys,

-you know,
like mountains rising up.
-Yeah.

I didn't realize
the lake system
that was here, as well.

So many water sources,
lots of fish,
that sort of stuff, and...

It's interesting because
it's... It's...

It's more dense
than I thought it would be.

The forest floor is,
there's a lot of cover.

There's a ton of cover.

And we were talking
as we were driving into,
like, it is...

it is really, really dense.

Coming from Tennessee,

like, we have lots of forests,
but it's... It's not like this.

I mean, there could be
some animal, right,

20 feet in that tree line
right there just watching us.

We'd have absolutely no idea
'cause you can't see
that far in.

Yeah.

SETH: It was day one,

and despite a hike
deep into the forest
near Wells, New York,

we'd barely experienced
the true scope of the park.

Our next stop was
somewhere near
Lake George,

where we would meet up
with Steve Kulls

and some of his
Bigfoot research team.

Steve is a private detective
and security expert

who runs an organization
comprised mostly of current

and former
law enforcement officials,

many of whom have encountered
Bigfoot for themselves.

Steve took us to a camp
on Buck Mountain

where his team had experienced
numerous unusual things.

We were only a handful of miles
away from Whitehall,

and in terms of travel paths,
Buck Mountain seems
as good a place as any

to encounter a creature
just passing through.

Despite the nearby tourist
haven of Lake George,

Buck Mountain
is densely forested,

runs down to
a mostly uninhabited section
of Lake George shoreline

and is overrun
with deer and other wildlife.

Like most rural spots
in this part of the Northeast,

it's the ideal place
for a person to encounter
a Sasquatch,

and many claim to have done
just that.

Um... what brings you out here?

Well, what brought me
out here, originally,

was a sighting report
of a man and his wife

that had a fairly
aggressive encounter

where they walked off trail...

and something started
screaming at them.

And the guy had been
coming up here for years

and never heard
anything like that.

He was a bit of an outdoorsman.

As they retreated
from where they were,

going back to the trail
and then back out
to the road area,

they... he could see
something moving, you know,
off to the corner of his eye.

You know, basically,
escorting them out.

And to me,
that's very indicative
that they may have interfered

with a territorial type of...
Of area.

MICHAEL: You know, I've been up
in the Adirondacks,

where I've come across
trackways

and found an adult...
What would be
an adult-sized trackway

with a juvenile-sized
trackway. At the end,
there's hair.

So, we know we have
two different size individuals

moving through that area.

The generally, the Adirondack...
uh... You know,
that's something...

I got a sighting that...
yesterday, up in
the St. Lawrence County area,

uh, from another
law enforcement officer.

Family has been smelling odors.

They did some knocks.

They got some screams.

But I got quite a few photos
and got some other evidence

that make it look like
it's a viable area.

In 2011, I was up here
with my team

and we were all sitting by,
by the fire.

I needed to get some batteries
for my headlamp.

So, I went out to my car.

And, uh, you know...
sometimes I like to
just walk away and listen.

Uh, I know their strategies.

They like watching us.

That's why we have
those types of sightings

where they're off on the...

the... the edge of the forest,
watching people do things.

And I shined my flashlight
down to the north side
of the road.

And then I spun around
to the south side of the road,

which is at an uphill grade,
and they're standing there...

uh, right next
to the utility pole was
this eight-foot dark creature.

I could see...
its eye shine was
reflecting back at me,

and the first thing it did
was turn around...

kind of... it kind of
turned its body and looked...

and I think it was looking
for an escape route,
just in case.

Now, mind you,
I'm shining a light
in its face,

or, you know,
at a distance of...
of maybe 100-150 feet.

Uh... you know, time slows down.

So, it could have been...
I thought it was 40 seconds.

It could have been longer,
could have been shorter,
I don't know,

but I shook the light,
and with that it turned,

and it started to walk
back into the woods

around the south side
of our camp.

What are some of the...
the things you've experienced,

or been a part of experiencing
during some of those
investigations

or night ops,
or whatever you want to...

[SIGHS] You know, I've been
paced out of the woods

with a couple
other, uh, investigators.

The rock throwing incident.

Sometimes I sit
on the skeptic side,
and then...

bam, I got hit in the face
with something.

Literally,
the rock throwing incident,

I was leaning
over the top of our car,

while another investigator
was pulling a camera
out of his car to get it set up.

Another investigator,
in the front of the car,
working with night vision...

and boom, one rock in the face,

another one skidded
across the roof of the car.

I'm moving around the car
going to get the thermal camera
out to get that set up.

We can hear thumps.

Can't get thermal camera on
fast enough to get to
that particular area.

SETH: It had been a long day,
but a real purpose
in coming to this area

with Steve and his crew
was to actively try to have

an encounter with Bigfoot
for ourselves.

Our night investigation
consisted of two parts.

Part one was a simple walk
down the forested gravel road

that leads up to
the parking lot
near our campsite.

Yeah. Can you give us a rundown
real quick of what
we're about to go do?

Okay, yeah, so, what we're doing
is sending a team out
to walk the road.

-There's been times
we've been out here before...
-SETH: Mmm-hmm.

STEVE: ...where we've
been paralleled,

actually on both
sides of the roads at times.

-SETH: Mmm-hmm.
-Uh, we actually repeated that

on the same night
with another team.

So, the whole idea is,
send that one team up.

We're going to stay here
in base camp
with a flare and monitor.

We have to always make sure
that they think
they're in control.

So, if you see, I'm gonna lead,

um, with Austin and Fred.

-Mike's gonna probably stay back
with you guys.
-[CAR HORN HONKS]

-Um...
-Yeah.

Mike, I'm just telling 'em.
what we're gonna do is
we're gonna walk for a while

-and we're gonna pause
and observe.
-MICHAEL: Okay.

And when we pause,
it's important for everybody
to be quiet.

-Okay.
-Let's go.

SETH: We wandered
down the gravel road
about a half mile,

stopping every 50 yards or so

to listen to the sounds
in the forest surrounding us.

-I don't know what that was.
-What's that movement?

-It just sounded like footsteps.
-Yeah, it did.

[WHISPERING]
It sounded like footsteps
going through the woods.

-Right.
-Yes.

-And then it just stopped.
-Yeah.

SETH: It was deathly quiet.

Outside of Area X,
I'd never experienced
the kind of stillness

that was pervasive
in our Buck Mountain
camping area.

There was the constant sense
that we were not alone
in this place,

and yet, the lack of
any ambient noise

should have led us
to feel the solitude.

Did you see what it is?

[MAN SPEAKING INDISTINCTLY]

True that.

I don't want to look.

-What you got?
-I had one...
No, I had a tree rat

and probably a small chipmunk
or something like that
go behind it.

SETH: Having no luck
during our road walk,

we headed back to base camp

where we made the decision
to try call blasting.

[SPEAKING INDISTINCTLY]

SETH: While one team
stayed at the camp,

four of us,
including Adam Duggan
and myself,

moved into the woods
about 200 yards
to hunker down

and see if we could spot
anything moving in toward camp.

Call blasting is a technique
frequently utilized
by Bigfoot researchers

to elicit a response
from their quarry.

Typically they'll blast
animal noises or other
purported Bigfoot recordings,

but tonight
they're trying something else,
something different.

[SCREAMING]

SETH: If there was
anything present
on the mountain that night,

besides Steve Kulls
and his crew
of investigators...

it didn't want to
make itself known.

Despite a lack of anything
definitive presenting itself
the previous night,

we woke up on day two
ready to get out
and experience the Adirondacks.

Our destination
was a mountainous area
to the southwest of our camp

on Buck Mountain
and Lake George,

a mild incline
of 1,500-plus feet

up the 3.4-mile
Hadley Mountain Trail.

Leaving the Lake George area,
we began to discover
the acres of forest

that covers the Adirondacks.

When the lockdowns began
in early March,

like everyone,
it relegated me to my home.

I would while away days
editing on my laptop
or researching future projects,

but I would often find myself
dreaming of the days

when I would again be able to
get out and explore
rugged mountains on foot.

SETH: There's nothing
like a global pandemic

to leave you in
the worst shape of your life.

And as I trudged
up Mount Hadley,

I couldn't help but think
that this was
the best kind of misery.

MARK: The Adirondack Park
was established in 1892,

and two years later,
there was a Forever Wild clause

that was added to
the New York State Constitution

that ensured
that the state lands

would not be sold or leased,

and also that the timber

would not be harvested, uh,
from those locations ever again.

And then, in 1912,
it was further clarified that

where the boundaries
for that all existed
because there was state forest,

there was private properties
that were also a part of that.

Well, you...
You have swampy areas.

You have heavily wooded areas.

You have rugged
mountainous areas.

I think we have 46 main peaks
in the Adirondacks.

You've got a wide diversity
of rugged terrain
in the Adirondacks,

and it would certainly be
able to sustain a mystery
for a long time.

I would imagine that
the habitat needed for
something like Bigfoot to exist

would have to be quite vast
in the sense of
natural resources

where you'd have
plenty of water sources,
plenty of food resources,

both in terms of carnivorous,
omnivorous, and basically,
anything in between.

Even though
the Adirondacks are vast,
they're not isolated.

They're connected
to other areas, other ranges.

There's ample wild areas
on the western side
of the Hudson River.

On the eastern side you have,

probably no more
than 50 miles away,

you get into
Western Massachusetts,

where you have Mount Greylock,

where you have
Savoy State Forest,

and there is a, uh,
green trail, if you will...

uh, looking at this
from a forested standpoint...

uh, that runs north and south
throughout New York State,

Vermont, New Hampshire,
even going up into Canada,
as well.

So, New York would be
the perfect habitat for Bigfoot

because it is a lot like
the Pacific Northwest.

It's just really shrunken down.

Bigfoot resides in areas
with heavy rainfall,

abundant wildlife
and resources.

Bigfoot is sighted
all over this region.

PETAKOV: I think
these creatures would
probably be opportunistic

because you have
times of the year
where nothing is growing.

You have really harsh winters
here in the Northeast

and New York
and Western Massachusetts,

the whole area.

You have five months
out of the year
where there's nothing

that's basically,
except for flesh and blood,
that's kind of running around.

So, that would be perhaps
a time where meat would be
more accessible.

PAUL: There are occasional
cases of these creatures

being attached
to maybe a downed deer,

and you wonder if it killed it
or came across
the dead animal already.

There was a report
in Kinderhook, New York,
of the creatures,

which seemed to be storing food
in a snowbank.

PETAKOV: During the summer
months, you have berries,
you have lots of fruits,

you have apple orchards
that we put out there.

There's been a lot of sightings

that are taking place
near apple orchards.

You have other animals
that do that as well.

Deer and moose,
they'll feed off
of our agriculture.

So, why would a creature
like this not do that?

EMILY: Another reason why
New York is the perfect place
for Bigfoot

is because it backs
right up to Canada,
and it's right next to Vermont.

These creatures
are migrating down.

They're migrating
through Vermont
through New York and then West.

SETH: Why do you say
they're migrating?

-Why? What evidence do you have?
-[GIGGLES]

Well, if you look
at the map of sightings,

you can tend to see
some migration patterns.

Canada has a lot of sightings
around the Ontario area,

and then those trickle down
into Upstate New York
and Vermont,

whereas on the West Coast,
British Columbia
has a ton of sightings

which trickle down into Oregon
and Washington and California.

If you look at the patterns,
seasonally, of sightings,

you will begin to
see correlations,

especially with
the annual rainfall, as well.

PAUL: One of the patterns
that we noticed
right away in this area

was that August, September
and October appear to be
peak months for sightings.

Why did... Native tribes
move back and forth
from different areas?

Why animals migrate...
your food sources, your heat.

And I think, up here
you just... You have
such a dense forest.

PAUL: It would appear that
if a creature
wants to be elusive,

the higher up it goes,

the less of a chance
of an encounter with people.

That makes perfect sense.

SETH: Do you think
there's some sort of, uh...
migratory route or...

I think what's going on
in this area, particular,

primates, like
aboriginal Americans,

they would have summer homes
and winter homes.

And they can migrate,
depending on the food source,

you know, weather
and stuff like that.

The reason why we have
so much activity

from about the end of May
till like the middle
of December here

is because we're
in the Adirondack State Park,

and in this part of the park,

it's oak, it's birch,
it's maple, its leaves.

And come October...

those leaves start to drop,
so, in winter time
there's no cover for that snow.

So, you will get, you know,
feet of snow up here.

So, I think what happens
is that they move from here

to the Green Mountain
State Forest,

and I think that's the reason
why Whitehall is, like,
this epicenter of everything.

They have some cover
from the snow there.

And then you...
And as well as camouflage.

And you have
the forests here
in the summertime,

which has an abundance of water
and abundance of wildlife

and abundance of food source.

SETH: Talk about what it is
about the geography
or the terrain here

that, that might set it apart
from other parts of the country.

I generally do
a lot of my research

in the western part
of New York,

uh, down into Pennsylvania
'cause that's where I'm located.

I do tend to get up here
a couple of times a year
to work with, uh...

With Steve Kulls.

You know, I've kind of been
brought up in their
thought theories,

but I also look at my own.

Today, you know,
we looked at a mountain...

Um, and you could look,
as you're going up
in elevation, the change

going from hardwood
to that pine.

And again, like we said,
we're looking at those
diversities in environment.

You could go forever
without being seen up here.

I mean, it's a giant,
giant area.

SETH: To say that the hike up
Mount Hadley was rough

would be
a dramatic understatement.

I could feel my legs under me
just dying to give up.

My lungs burn,
my back was coated with sweat

and I was breathing
like a marathon sprinter
nearing the finish line.

And then, there it was,
the summit.

SETH: Suddenly, viruses,
politics, elections,
social unrests

were replaced by something
I hadn't experienced
in a long time.

Peace.

Here in the Adirondacks,

while searching
for what most consider a myth,

I'd found a break
from the chaos
of the world outside.

I woke up on day three,
tired and sore,

but eager to
finally revisit the scene

of one of the most important
recorded Bigfoot sightings
on the East Coast.

Each trip brings me back
to a town that has become
a home away from home to me

in the waning years
since we made our documentary
based here.

Since we've released
the Beast of Whitehall in 2015,

the town has embraced
its strange legacy

as a hot spot
for unusual creature sightings.

Even going so far as to host
an annual Bigfoot festival

to accompany
the myriad statues, sculptures

and wood carvings
that dot the area.

Though it's situated
at the base of
the Adirondack Mountains

and just outside
the boundaries of the park,

Whitehall still encompasses
everything about the region

that makes it so unique
and so perfectly suited

for a large animal
to remain hidden.

Outside the village,
the mountains spill out
into fields and forests

that stretch all the way
into nearby Vermont.

There are certain cases
that become landmark cases,

and one of those was
the Abair Road incident
back in 1976.

And if we were to
put it in a nutshell,

you had teenagers
out on Abair Road,

a very rural road
in... In Whitehall, New York.

They parked their truck
and they encountered a creature

that was walking
next to a telephone pole there.

They sped away,
leaving tracks in the road

and went in to
report it to the police.

Washington County
Deputy Sheriff,
the Whitehall Police,

New York State Trooper,
all responded
to the... To the scene.

And that night,
which was August 24th, 1976,

they cited several sightings
of a creature out on Abair Road

that was described
as being about
seven to eight feet tall,

dark colored,
walking upright like a man,

but looking more like a gorilla
and having red glowing eyes.

SETH: Paul Bartholomew
is a born and raised
Whitehall local

with connections
to the Abair Road incident,

as well as most major cases
from the area.

In the 1980s, Paul,
along with his brother Robert,

author Bruce Hallenbeck,
and Bigfoot investigator
Bill Brann,

co-authored a book titled
Monsters of the Northwoods,

a study of the phenomenon
in Upstate New York.

The book helped to cement
the Abair Road incident's
place in history

and also to act
as a connecting point
for the research

of four of the most important
figures in Bigfoot research
on the East Coast.

Today, a rift has grown
between Brann
and the Bartholomews,

but despite this fact,
the historical significance
of the book

can't be overstated, in that
it fully defined Whitehall

as a gateway
to unusual happenings
on the East Coast.

So, are those sightings over...
by Carvers Falls...

am I wrong in remembering that?
I thought there was
something about... Okay.

-Big one.
-SETH: Oh, okay, I thought
you were saying I was wrong.

That's... You know what,
I... I should have
mentioned that and I didn't.

The Abair Road incident
culminated with
the Carvers Falls incident,

in which a fellow...
came into the police station.

Back then, it was a great job
to be a dispatcher.

You're on duty all night.

You're right there
taking a couple calls,
watching TV or whatever.

Guy comes rushing
in the police station,

"I just shot Bigfoot."

So, uh, New York State Police
were notified

'cause that's
their jurisdiction.

They shooed out to, uh,
Carvers Falls Road...

and, uh, go to the site,
they find shotgun shell,

but they don't find
any creature...

The Whitehall area
has produced some
extremely important researchers.

And the first of those
is Dr. Warren Cook.

He was a heavyweight researcher
and well respected
in circles of higher education.

Dr. Cook also
was heavily interested
in mystery primates.

And certainly included
in that number of researchers

was one William or Bill Brann.

And Bill Brann really became
an instrumental researcher

in Whitehall cases,
in particular,
the Abair Road incident.

SETH: Can you talk
about your...

Any insights you might have

to share about
people who investigate Bigfoot,

specifically in
this area, like...

There were two people involved
in investigating these reports.

One was a college professor
from Columbia-Greene College
named Dr. Gary Levine.

The more serious researcher,
I felt, was another
college professor

from Castleton College
in Vermont, Dr. Warren Cook,

who took
a very biological approach
to the creature.

He felt that in Whitehall
and Kinderhook

there may have been
breeding colonies
of these things.

What Paul Bartholomew
and... And Dr. Cook established
in that region

was a sort of loose grouping
of Bigfoot researchers

who were sharing information
with one another,

and early on, establishing
a database of sightings

and correlating
both local legends and lore

with up to date sightings
of the Bigfoot creature.

Well, this is one of my
first time really diving into
the Adirondacks.

I've just been sort of
on the peripheries.

I've been to Whitehall
a number of times,

and I think that Whitehall
almost functions
as a gateway to this area,

and kind of what
we talked about
to a lot of the researchers

was the possibility
of migrational routes

and the way
these things are moving into
other states, into Vermont,

where there's other sightings.

And then you have
this vast wilderness.

EMILY: Whitehall is kind of
the Bigfoot capital
of New York, you could say.

What's interesting to me
is that you can go
from New York City,

with a population
over a million,

to Whitehall, with a population
just under a few thousand,

and the landscape
and culture changes so much.

You know, I've heard sightings
go back as far as the '50s.

We're trying to get the actual
definitive line on that.
It's kind of hard.

But I do know,
beginning in the '60s

that there were sightings
on the Vermont side

just over the, the river,
you know, from Whitehall.

And then, you know, obviously
in the '70s, Whitehall.

We're not very far
from Whitehall.

We are, you know,
within 15 miles of Whitehall.

This forest here
goes straight to that area.

Do you think there's a larger
preponderance of reports

based around Whitehall?

What do you think
that's attributable to?

You know, I'm not really sure
if it's because the attention
has been placed on the area

or if the area itself
is synonymous with
paranormal phenomena.

In this region, we can go to
Kinderhook, New York.

We can go to
Whitehall, New York.

We can go to
Chittenden, Vermont,
parts of Rutland, Vermont.

These all seem to be hot spots
for creature activity
in this region.

But I suspect that part
of Whitehall's charm may be
because we've focused on it.

There was another gentleman
in 2003, I believe,

that was parked right outside
this campsite's parking area,

which is maybe
a few hundred yards from here.

He opens his door up,
it hit something,

looked down,
there's a hairy foot,

looked up and something's
looking down at him.

He was sleeping in his car.

So, there it was,
looking at him

and it just kind of turned
and walked away.

And that's not uncommon
over here.

Sometimes people,
instead of camping,
they'll just, you know,

they've done a hike,
"I'm gonna hang out,

"and I'm gonna
go sleep in the car."

It's a beautiful area.
It's quiet.

It's desolate. You need
to get away, it's perfect.

There was a young man
with his uncle
who loved to go fishing.

That was their hobby,
and they would always go
to the same place every summer.

It's in Rutland, Vermont,
which is right near Whitehall.

And so, as they were fishing,
they started hearing splashes
in the water.

They started to get concerned.

As a fisherman,
you don't really hear
too much noise

unless a fish
is jumping out of the water.

But the type of fish that were
in this creek wouldn't do that.

So, they started heading
down the creek,

and all of a sudden
this young man's uncle

put his hand back and said,
"Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.
Stay there."

They started making their way
around to the other side
of the creek very quietly

to see if they could
find the creature
and see a clearer image of it.

So, they got around the bend,
and all of a sudden
the creature came into view.

It was a huge, dark figure
covered in hair.

They were about 40 feet
from this creature,

so, they could see
almost every detail.

It looked like a linebacker.

Its... Its body was humongous,
and it was in the creek

trying to catch a fish
with its bare hands

and getting frustrated
while doing so,

hence, slapping the water.

One of the recent sightings
from 2018 was simply a...

The most common sighting
that we get, which is
the road-cross sighting.

And it's usually...
You weren't expecting it,

you aren't looking for it,

and it just crosses the road
in front of you.

SETH: The bulk
of witness sightings

in the Whitehall area
take place near roads

and typically occur from
behind the wheel of the car.

Even the infamous
1976 sightings are an example
of this fact.

Whitehall, being just outside
the Adirondack Park

and situated
at the base of the mountains,

might simply be a stop
on the way to someplace else
for Bigfoot,

if it exists.

With multiple rivers
and streams

that flow down
from the high peaks region
in the Adirondacks,

it's theorized that
they could simply be
following the waterways

which lead to
or nearby the village,

which could account for
the high number of sightings
in this specific area.

On this day, Paul Bartholomew
had set up a meeting
with a witness

who wished to remain anonymous.

However, his sighting
is within the last year,

and like the 1976 sightings,

it takes place near a road.

Everything was closed,
I was relaxing at home.

I get a call from my friend
that his truck overturned

and he needed my help
down by the Apple Diner.

So, I live on...
I live down in, uh, Whitehall.

So, what I did was,
I got dressed, went outside,

get in the car,
started down on 4.

And, uh, I ended up by the, uh,
the electric panels,

they just put up that
new field of electric panels.

And as I was coming
down the hill,

just as I pass
the electric panels,
I was coming down the hill,

and I was looking up,

and all of a sudden
I see this big shadow
stepping over a fence,

the fence that was there,
a little short fence...

and it was stepping over,
his back was to me.

His arm was down here.

His other arm was, like,
half up like this...

and he stepped over the fence.

And I look at it,
I go, "Oh, my God..."
I say, "Looks like a man."

But it wasn't a man,
it was a big, hairy thing.

Then what I did was,
as I kept on going,

by the time I got down there,
I was about 400 feet away.

By the time I got down here,
it was already down
and went down

Because if you
look down there,
where I saw the footprints...

So, then I go home,

and then my wife says,

"Tomorrow morning, go and see
if there's footprints."

I go, "Honey, I don't got..."

She says, "Go see
if there's footprints."

I went there,

saw the prints,
took the pictures, called Paul.

Paul went there,
and he made a couple of casts
of the right and the left foot.

of both of them.
Just where the thing went over.

And I'm standing there
looking at the footprints,

I'm going, "Oh, my God.
There's footprints there."

And I couldn't believe it.

I made the pictures.
I got the pictures in my phone,
you saw them.

And that's the whole week.
Then I went home,
and that was it.

And then... Paul took care
of the rest. They put...

How... How big
do you think it was?

I would say,
at least six-and-a-half
to seven feet.

SETH: Did you see a color?

MAN: Black. All I could see
was black, pure black.

SETH: Eye shine, any?
MAN: No, he was back...

-His back...
His back was to me.
-SETH: Okay.

He was...
He was, like, sideways...

stepping over there,
just like this.

I'm coming down the road here.

And he's like this
stepping over... like this.

And his back, his head,
everything is...

Everything was, uh,
in one big...

His head, there was no neck.

It was like hair
coming down like this.

Shoulders like this,
coming down.

One hand was out.

The other hand was like this
on the side...

and he was stepping over...

and all black, all black hair.

And that was it.

I never thought that
in a million years
that I would ever...

-See it.
-...see it.

You know, I'm born Brooklyn boy.

I don't know anything
about that.

I never come upstate that much.

You know,
when I moved up here,
all of a sudden I saw a Bigfoot.

It was amazing.
Do you want to see it again?

I would love to see it again,

but I doubt
that's ever gonna happen.

Remember, I'm, uh, you know...
I'm not a young guy and, uh...

it took a long time
to see this one.

You know, it was amazing.

I was really shocked.

I can't believe it.

That thing was just standing,
I could just see it.

-Yeah.
-I... I genuinely appreciate you
telling me your story.

That's great.

-Thank you very much.
-It's really...

I... I hope someday
I can have
that experience myself.

I tell you, it's weird.
You'd be very...
I... I was shocked.

I mean, I... I was on the phone
screaming to my wife.

I'm going, "I can't believe it.

"I just saw Bigfoot."
"Yeah, you fool,
my dad just saw Bigfoot!"

"I can't believe it! I just saw
him just climb over the fence."

-The big black thing
just standing there, you know.
-Yeah.

It was weird.

It was really... It was really
a weird thing to be out
at that hour going to that area.

I usually never
go down that way.

-It's strange.
-Yeah.

SETH: As evening fell,

we made the decision
to head to Carvers Falls,

a location tied to
Whitehall's Bigfoot history.

While there have been
multiple sightings

in the forests and fields
surrounding the Poultney River,

Carvers Falls is
an especially active location.

Geographically, the falls
lie less than a quarter mile

from the location
where the Gosselin sighting
took place.

It's also the location
where Bigfoot investigator
Bill Brann once theorized

the creature
may have called home
for a short time.

Brann had even gone so far
as to search a local cave
for evidence

of the Beast
of Whitehall's presence,

but had come away empty handed.

Carvers Falls
has a large decline
that runs down a steep hill

before spilling out
into the valley that runs
just behind Abair Road.

At the top of the falls lies
a dam built to supply power
to Plant 1491,

which sits along
the banks of the river.

[SHOUTS]

[SHOUTS]

What are your thoughts
on this area?

Oh, it's a nice little...
quiet area. [EXHALES]

There's been some disturbance...

There's a plant broken off.

Quite sure everyone is on...

Can you see, there seems
to be... any kind of...

motion.

But whatever it is,
it doesn't look like it's...
very large...

if there is anything.

SETH: Our plan was to
hike down the hill
and end at the valley

where we would
follow the river.

Paul Bartholomew had speculated
that the Bigfoot seen in 1976

may have been following
the Poultney River

and simply wandered away
from the banks

in search of food or shelter.

Perhaps that's why it was seen
in an empty field off Abair,

a concept which is bolstered
by a strange deer kill

that was found
at the back of the same field
the creature was sighted,

just days after
the incident occurred.

[SHOUTS]

[SHOUTS]

[INDISTINCT CONVERSATION]

-Yeah, you can't hear it.
-You can hear
from farther distances.

You kind of have to be
on top to hear it.

SETH: Whatever the case,
on this night,
I couldn't help but think

that we might be walking
in the same path

that the Beast of Whitehall
had walked over 40 years ago.

[INDISTINCT CONVERSATION]

-...paper crack.
-Yeah.

-It's hollow ground.
-It is. Yeah.

And it's kinda funny
after knowing Brian,

and hearing the story
so many times,

you can see it.

And you can see him parked here,

and the trooper
that was parked
down the road.

And then the trooper
peeling out.

And then Brian, hearing the...
As he described the...
[SCRAPING]

The... The rubbing of the legs.

And then, he gets out,
puts the light up,

shines it on it,
and it turns around.

He kinda has
his back, turns around,
goes like that.

And it just turns around
and keeps on walking.

Like, historically, I think...

this location's
really important to the...
To the East Coast.

Especially to New York State,

'cause of
the Abair Road incident...

But, like... I mean,
you and I have talked
about it so much

-you're well aware of this
-Right.

But just... On, like,
a personal level,

this is probably the place
where I finally considered

the possibility
the Bigfoot was real,

on a natural level.
On a real level.

Like, beyond just, like,
fun, myth-making kinda stuff.

What was it
about the location then?

I've never been able
to figure it out

because of all the places
we've gone,

this is the location
that I... genuinely love.

-Right.
-I just love to be here.

Love to come out here.

And, we... We've spent...

I mean, I've been...
This is my fourth trip here.

You know, on every trip
we spend multiple nights

-out here, just doing this.
Just hanging out.
-Mmm-hmm.

So, I don't know
what it is about the location

other than, maybe, just...
You're just so aware
of the history of the place.

That it... Being here
almost brings it to life.

-Mmm-hmm.
-The... The incident...

to life. And just you...
You do, sort of,

gain a love
or create a certain...

-There's a certain love
for the story.
-Yeah.

And this... This really
does put it in
a different perspective,

a real, like,
real life perspective.

So I think
that's a big part of it.

What's it like for you
to be here?

Um, yeah, it's great.

-I mean, it's the first time
I've seen any of it.
-Yeah.

Yeah, it's... It's pretty crazy.

And having just
been down in, uh...

-The river valley.
-The river, yeah.

-You can kinda put
some pieces together...
-Right.

...in an interesting way.

-Where it might have
traveled and why?
-Right.

SETH: We headed back
to base camp for our final
night on Buck Mountain.

There, Steve Calls unveiled
a piece of history,
in the way of sighting maps

that he's been working on
for over 20 years.

Maps that help to show
the ebb and flow of activity
around the region.

-Yeah, just tell us
what these are first.
-STEVE: Okay, so...

What I try to do is...
These are the, uh,
the geographical survey maps

of, uh, the areas that,
you know,

are... Are, you know...
From basically, Lake George
to the Vermont state line.

What I've done
is I've marked with dots

different events
that had happened,

-relating to
Sasquatch sightings...
-SETH: Mmm-hmm.

STEVE: ...in and around
the area.

This is the area
we're in over here.

This is... You know,
20 years of me coming up here

mainly is the reason why
it includes the forty end casts.

and the... And the, uh...
You know, 2003 there was
vocalizations heard,

pilot knob...

And, uh, you know,
the different base camps,
over the years, we've used.

SETH: How many individual
events is that?

-A dozen, or so.
-Okay.

Um, not... You know,
some by our own team,
some by others.

-The one right here...
-SETH: Mmm-hmm.

-STEVE: ...is actually the one
that... That brought us here.
-Mmm-hmm.

STEVE: Brought me here
20 years ago.

And, as you can see,
as you go west,

um, it's almost like
this is a... A push...

through here, into the area.

Um, which is Whitehall,
which is, kind of, to me,
the crossroads.

And, you know, you see heavy
concentrations of events.

And a couple of those events
are... Are with our team.

But the rest of the events,
actually, were from witnesses
since the 1960s.

SETH: Where...
Where's the Poultney,
where we were tonight?

STEVE: Uh, Poultney is
gonna be right here.

-As you can see, it's gonna
come right along here.
-Mmm.

-And it's gonna go
into Whitehall that way.
-SETH: Okay.

-You can see...right.
-STEVE: ...how all those are...
canal or waterway.

So, is it possible that some
kind of straggled along
and went that way?

Absolutely.

So, it... To me what it's
showing is movement.
-Right.

Um, even if they don't go
into the Green Mountains,

it shows a lot
of movement in here.

Of course, now that
I've seen Carvers Falls,

-you know, there's
a lot of pine in here.
-Mmm-hmm.

Uh, so that... That's important

-because again
it may provide...
-Cold...

It might provide...

Yeah, it might provide
some more cover, so...

So, well... maybe it's just
kind of a movement into here
and into Carvers Falls.

-Hmm.
-And... you know, you kind of
see the distinct pattern

-of where things are going.
-Yeah.

SETH: Ninety-eight miles
south of Whitehall,

lies another small
New York town,

that has a significant role
in Bigfoot's story
on the East Coast.

I first became aware
of the village of Kinderhook

while making
theBeast of Whitehall.

Paul Bartholomew was eager
for me to learn about
the infamous rash

of strange creature reports
that took place
in the early 1980s.

And I was so fascinated
by the stories

that I ended up including
a brief news segment

that a TV news crew from Albany
had done on the Kinderhook
creature in our film.

We journeyed out of
the Adirondack area
to visit Western Massachusetts,

and to learn
more about Bigfoot
in the Northeast.

When we discovered
that Kinderhook was right
along our travel route,

we made a beeline
for this tiny hamlet
in the Hudson Valley.

Upon arrival, we met up
with Bruce Hallenbeck,

a key player
in the creature case,

as well as one of
the co-authors
of Monsters of the Northwoods.

Can you talk about
the Kinderhook
creature sightings...

uh, and... and... Bruce,
and all that kind of stuff?

Sure. If... You know
in some of these regions,

it's not what you would expect.

Albany, New York, uh,
the capital of New York.

If you go just
10 miles south,

you will run into
Kinderhook, New York.

They have a creature
down there.

The leading expert
on the Kinderhook creature

is Bruce G. Hallenbeck.

And Bruce Hallenbeck,
uh, several members
of his family,

have had close encounters,

with, uh, a creature,
and multiple creatures
down in that region.

And a lot of the Kinderhook
creature sightings
took place in or around 1980.

Which is not all that
far removed from
the Abair incident of 1976.

This was a time in history
where Bigfoot sightings
were happening

all over the country,
and there was a general sense

that it's all right
to talk about these things.

TV PRESENTER: ...creature
or creatures
in the Kinderhook area.

It's very elusive,
whatever it is.

In fact, Hallenbeck says
this thing is so elusive that
he'll sometimes see tracks,

and then they suddenly stop,
as if the creature
had vanished into thin air...

SETH: Can you walk us through
Kinderhook creature attacks?

The Kinderhook creature story

really is, in a way, the story
of my grandmother.

But it started with another
family member of mine

my cousin, Barry,
who was

trapping down
in the swamp land
behind my parents' house.

One day, he came
running up to the house,
and I was here,

and his face
was as white as a sheet,

and he said he had seen
three creatures
cross the creek down there

that were tall, bipedal,
and had reddish-brown hair.

And they were making
clacking and grunting sounds.

Much later that year,
my grandmother had noticed

that something was taking
her trash bags

from the... The garbage can
on the porch.

Taking the bags down
to the middle of the yard,

untying them
like a person would do,

and rifling through,
to apparently look for food.

So, it must've
had fingers, right?

My grandmother
also found out that

her neighbor, uh,
a woman named Mrs. Walters,

was having
the same experiences.

And she found her trash bag
up in a tree, one day.

And then, uh, one morning,
my grandmother got up
early, around 5:00,

and it was just
getting light,

and she looked out
the... The kitchen window,

and saw something
lying on the ground

all curled up, she said,
like in the fetal position.

A creature curled up
in the fetal position
on her lawn.

And she watched for a minute
thinking it was a bear

that was gonna get up
and walk, you know,
and lumber away.

Whatever it was, got up,
stood on two legs,
and walked away.

And they wrote to
theTimes Union back then,

a columnist
named Barney Fowler.

And he dubbed it,
"The Kinderhook Creature."

MAN: ...encounter
with the creature.

[MUMBLING]

Big, tall.

And it was standing
on its two feet,

just like a person.

And covered with black hair.
And...

So, he published a letter,

and as a result of that,

scores of other people wrote in,

saying that they had
had similar experiences...

They'd either seen something,
or they heard something
they couldn't explain.

And they were all
in the same general area
here in Columbia County.

It got to the point where
he was getting deluged
with so many letters,

he finally had to say,
"Okay. That's enough.
We have to stop now.

"We have to go on
to other topics."

Finally, in September...
September 24th, 1980,

my aunt Barbara was bringing
my grandmother home
from her house.

As soon as my grandmother
got out of the car,

she heard this noise
from around the side
of the house,

that she described
as sounding like
a person in mortal agony.

[SCREECHING]

My aunt Barbara heard it,
and she was so... So terrified
that she panicked,

and she locked all the doors
before my grandmother
could get back in the car.

What eventually happened
was my grandmother
came in to the house,

and my aunt Barbara
went to get my cousin Barry,
who had a shotgun,

My grandmother
stayed in the house,

holding a hammer
in her hand.[CHUCKLES]
Sitting by the window.

Ready for anything, I guess,
'cause she was a tough lady.

My aunt Barbara came back
with, uh, her son Barry.

And Barry got up on the porch
with a shotgun.

And he heard
the rustling of leaves,

and he heard the thing
moving near the trees.

And, so he fired the shotgun
up into the air,

and everything went silent.

Then he fired it again,
and he said this time

flame came out
the barrel of the gun,

and the creature screamed
and ran away.

And, uh, that was
the end of it.

They didn't hear
anything more that night.

So, there were
a lot of sightings,
and a lot of vocalizations

going on through the '80s...

up in... into, uh,
late 1988 actually,

when my mother tape recorded
a strange creature,

making all kinds of bizarre
noises across the road
from their house.

SETH: Can you, uh,
start by telling me,

uh, your name
and your connection
to the story.

The Kinderhook Creature story.

I'm Susan Hallenbeck,
and I live here.

My mother and I would
tape the noises, and...

uh, heard noises
for quite a while
over that one summer.

When was it, like '82
and again in '88.

'82 was a variety
of strange noises,

like, uh, sometimes it would
sound like a pig squealing,

and other times it would
sound like a giant bird.

Like a pterodactyl or something.

And, um, sometimes it would
sound almost like a monkey.

Um, there was also... I think
it was when we made a tape,

if I'm not mistaken,

that my father went over
across the road with a shotgun,

trying to see
if he could see anything.

And he said he saw
something with red eyes.

Something that he saw
with red eyes,

and he said there aren't
really any animals
native to this area

-that have red eyes.
-SETH: Mmm-hmm.

So... [CLICKS TONGUE]
That was part of it.

-WOMAN: Still plays.
-It still... Oh, you have
the original one?

Is that in there?
Oh, okay, you've done it.

-SETH: That's exciting.
-All right.

[STATIC ON RECORDER]

That it?

Well, I was trying
to turn it up.

[STATIC CONTINUES]

[SQUAWKING ON TAPE]

I don't think we can hear
anything else, but...

We were almost wondering if it
was some kind of
a bird thing, because...

Yeah, it would make
weird bird noises...
We still don't know about that.

And then we shined
the light on it,

and then, couple seconds later,
it was down

at the other end of the field
where that driveway is.

Yeah, it moved fast,
whatever it was,
or there were two of them.

It moved fast whatever it was.

SETH: But he said he saw
something with red eyes.

Red eyes, that's all he saw...

BRUCE: The sightings
continued.

Uh, there were some
very interesting experiences

that, uh, people had,
who were neighbors of ours.

There was a fellow
up the road named,
uh, Philip Wineguard

who said that he saw it
in a swamp.

You know, the...
The typical description,

and he said it was making
a horrible sound.

There was an excellent sighting
by a fellow named Mike Mabb,

who was fishing
at a nearby dam, one day.

And he saw
across the creek,

this creature come out
of the woods.

And this was in
broad daylight, mind you,
this was in the afternoon.

He said it had
reddish-brown hair,

very big dark eyes.

He even said that he could see
its fingernails were black.

And finally it turned
and went back into the woods,

and that was the end of it.

So what you have
in the Kinderhook location,

is that green pathway,

going from the Adirondacks,
down around the Albany area

and along the Hudson River then.

You can also
extend that eastward.

And if you go
about 50 miles east,

then again you're running
into Greylock, uh, Mountain.

You're running into
the Savoy State Forest
in Western Massachusetts.

While it wouldn't seem
immediately evident

that this would be a place
for strange creature locations,

uh, there seems to be
a... A sensible way

that this is linked
to other areas of New York.

SETH: It's somewhat surreal to
visit a place like Kinderhook.

Almost like
you've stepped foot
in a fictional location.

This town, like Whitehall,
is so tied into Bigfoot lore

that any book, documentary,
or podcast on the topic,

will almost inevitably
get around to bringing it up.

"A landmark case,"
as Paul Bartholomew
would call it,

can imprint itself
onto an entire community.

Even if it's only in the eyes
of those who experienced

something unusual
for themselves.

It reminds me, in a way,
of the Pacific Northwest

and how towns
like Willow Creek

are forever linked
to their local Bigfoot.

And just like Sasquatch
left a mark on the men
and women

who experienced it in the towns
where the legend was born,

here on the East Coast,
the story remains the same.

One thing that's impressed me
in the 40 years is...

how this topic can be a
life changer for certain people.

A lot of people, this is
not a positive experience,

but can be a negative
experience for them.

Uh, some researchers
I've met, treat this
almost like a religion.

And I would warn against that.

Take the information down,
enjoy life,

and just, uh, report on it
as accurately as possible.

MAN: And just on a... A sort of
practical level, you know,

just the... The idea
of human beings
exploring their world.

Whether it's just
other people,
or other... places,

and these exotic,
remote countries
and that type of thing.

It is just sort of
a natural inclination
to human beings

to... To go out and explore...

At the same time,
uh, you have things like

ghosts or the paranormal
or some kind of
anomalous phenomenon

that seems to,
sort of, toy with us.

And wants to be explored
whether we want it
to be around or not.

SETH: By the time
we left Kinderhook,

it was already late afternoon.

That evening
we were to meet up
with Squatchachusetts,

a Bigfoot research group,
operated out of
Western Massachusetts,

and headed
by Jonathan Wilk.

We were still roughly
two hours from the location

where we would be conducting
our night investigation,

so, with the sun setting
behind the hills
around Kinderhook,

we made our way
further east.

As we began to journey
from the populated regions
of Upstate New York,

the changing terrain gave way
to the densely forested areas
of the Northeast Coast.

Here, not far from
the suburban sprawl
of cities,

like Boston and Hartford,

we found ourselves

among strangely familiar
mountains and foothills.

Familiar, because here,
nine hours from home in Ohio,

we'd once again
found ourselves in Appalachia.

The frontiers
of the Adirondacks,

had given way to the backwoods
of the Appalachian Mountains.

And maybe here,
three hours from Whitehall,

we would find some clue

as to where the creatures
that wandered down
from the high peaks...

might end up.

All right, um, start out
by telling me your name

and your connection
to the Bigfoot subject.

Uh, my name's Jonathan Wilk,

and, I... We're here

in Savoy Mountain
State Forest this evening

and my connection
to Bigfoot was...

I was a park ranger up here,

uh, back in the '80s
and the '90s.

And I had one run
right out in front of
my pickup truck one night.

About a mile from
where we are tonight.

SETH: What is it about
this particular area

that you think
draws them here

-or might... Or might
contribute to their existence...
-Well, all of New England

is... Is full of patchy
sections of forest.

New England
was clear-cut three times
over the past 200 years.

And, so there...
There's not a lot of,

uh... Uh, protected
forest land up here.

And, if you wanna find
a Sasquatch in New England,

go to the few patches
of forest that are left.

The Pacific Northwest
is so vast,

there's so many
places to hide.

Here, in New England, there's
not a lot of places to hide.

So, it makes it
a lot easier to pinpoint

where these creatures
may be, or may have been.

Western Massachusetts
is at least 50% forested.

From the middle
of Massachusetts, west,
towards New York,

there's, there's well over
half a million...
Uh, forested acres.

SETH: Uh, start out by
telling me your name

and your connection
to the Bigfoot subject.

I'm Dave McCullough
from Massachusetts.

I work with Squatchachusetts.

I started out, New York, 2005,

probably about
four years straight,

just goin' up there.

That's when I...

Before I met Jon
and Squatchachusetts

and getting reports around Mass.

I was always, "Uh, gotta go
at least three to four hours

"up to New Hampshire,
Maine, or..."

Right after going to Whitehall,
I was just hooked, and...

I got to know Paul Bartholomew,
a few guys up there,

uh, you know them all,
Paul Gosselin and...

just talkin' to them,
they... They're there.

They're there.
I know they're there.

Got me hooked and, uh, I've been
steadily into it since.

What is it about this sort
of region of the country

that you think might appeal
to something like a Bigfoot?

Until I actually read up
on the East Coast reports,

Paul Bartholomew, Loren Coleman

and other researchers
from the East.

Uh, I've just realized
it's in my backyard,

I didn't have to
travel far, like,

in Massachusetts, in general,
there's a lot of farms,
rolling hills,

Not as steep and hilly
as say maybe
New Hampshire, Maine.

But abundant food supply,

from west to east,
it's really a vast state.

Doesn't look it on the map,
but there is a lot of farms
and lands and swamps.

SETH: So, where are
we going tonight?

Tonight, we're going, uh,
about 50 feet over here

into Savoy State Forest.

One of the squatchiest places,
I feel, in New England.

There are more reports up here

then I... Then I know of
anywhere else in the area.

I know this area
like the back of my hand.

I've been working
up in here for years.

I know all the trails.

I know all the hills.
I know all the hiding spots.

And we have
pretty good luck up here.

I say, you come with us,
you got about a 20% chance
of something happening.

-Mmm-hmm.
-You got about a zero chance
of ever seeing one...

-Yeah.
-But, you might...

You're almost guaranteed
to hear something.

Either hear something,
or have something
thrown at us.

We love when stuff's
thrown at us.

-Yeah. [CHUCKLES]
-We encourage that.

So, 'cause it never really
lands near you,

it just lands around you.

And they just try
to intimidate you,
and let you know

that you're really
not welcome here.

And that we're
invading their area.

And we always respect that.
We back out.

And we... And we just, uh,
we go on.

-Yeah.
-And... And that's the end
of the show for the night

when... When something
like that happens anyways,

'cause usually we're pretty...

-Everyone in the group's shooken
up, and we're ready to...
-Yeah.

-We're ready to move on
to the next place.
-Sort of respectfully.

-Yeah, you respectively retreat.
-Yeah. [CHUCKLES]

Try to walk kinda quietly,

you know, 'cause everybody's
trying to turn their ears on
as much as possible,

and listen.

Uh, we have extra flares.
We can pass 'em around
if anybody wants to use 'em.

And let's go have some fun.

All right. Let's do it.

SETH: You can travel
all over the country,
maybe even the world,

and find a variation
of the same story.

A human being,
an unexpected encounter,

a life changed.

Something about being in
the forest here
in the Northeast

just drives it home for me.

While the Pacific Northwest
is vast with endless acres
of forest,

here, we're never
that far from civilization.

Yet, people are still claiming
encounters with the creature
known as Bigfoot.

In their own backyard,

these men and women are still
able to wander into the forest

and maybe, just maybe,

find themselves with something
more than just a mystery

or an excuse to head outside
during a pandemic.

Here, along
the Appalachian Mountains,

we're in the heart
of the Adirondacks.

You can find yourself
face to face with a legend.

It was a really hot summer night
and we just had a thunderstorm.

And I always remember that fresh
smell of the ozone in the air.

Had the window rolled down.

It was probably
about 80 degrees out.

Listening to the Red Sox
on my AM radio,

checking some of
the outlying boundaries.

Which one of them
is not too far from here.

So I pulled into this place
called Tannery Falls
Parking Lot.

It's a day-use area where people
can have a picnic

and also go visit this, uh,
300-foot cascading waterfall.

And I get out of the truck
to pick up some garbage
that was on the ground.

And as I came around the truck,
this noise came from the woods.

This six and a half foot tall,
hairy creature came running out,

grabbed the trash
in front of me

and took off around
the other side of the truck.

As it came around
the side of the truck,
it looked me right in the eye.

I was pretty much paralyzed
with fear and shock and awe.

I went to jump in the truck,
and when I turned,

there was about
an eight and a half foot one
standing behind the truck

that let out a scream
that can only be compared

to probably a gorilla and a lion
screaming at the same time.

The other one took off.
It was out of sight.

Because it was pitch dark
up there

all you could see was just
what the headlights

and tail lights
were illuminating.

-Did you hear that?
-Yeah.

-Oh, oh, he's here.
-Is it moving?

-It did.
-It could be the windmills.

[INDISTINCT CHATTERING]

It could be the windmills.

There's windmills
way up in the entrance.

[INDISTINCT CONVERSATION]

Everyone was talking at once.

Yeah.

And in the middle of it,
there was a real...

[KNOCK]

-Did you hear that?
-Yeah.

[KNOCK]

-Did you hear that?
-Yeah.

[KNOCK]

They're huge.
They're far, far, far.

-They're like 40 miles...
-Seth said he heard something.

Dude, I thought in the middle
of all you guys talking,
I think I heard him.

-Thought you...
-Oh, I don't...

Did you not...
Did you hear something
that sounds like drumming?

-No.
-You didn't?

-I didn't.
-Everyone was talking at once.

Yeah.

That first one,
I think was legit.

Where do you think it came from?

The first one, I have no idea,
'cause it was literally
right when you guys saw that.

-Everyone started talking...
-Yeah.

and all of a sudden,
I just heard it.

Remember when I talked
about discipline tonight?

Here I am breaking my own rules,
you know.

It was... It was kind of like...

-You're sure those red lights...
-It was there.

That one was distant
but not that distant.
Not as distant.

This one was like
way off in that direction.

-I think that was a car
turning around I saw.
-Okay.

'Cause there's a clearing
up there.

There's like a... Where a bunch
of trails come together.

My guess is
they took the wrong road.

Anything we didn't touch on yet
that you wanted to talk about?

Uh, just the camaraderie,
all the great people
I've met in this,

it's been a great ride.

This has been a lot of fun.

We've been all around
the country.

Met some
really interesting people,
hundreds of witnesses.

And going
to some of those things

and seeing people that
really affected their lives.

I've seen people crying,
talking about their report.

Changes people's lives.

From most of the witnesses
I've heard,

they look
at the world differently
and... need some answers.

SETH: When planning
this adventure,
we'd consciously decided

to save our trip up into the
High Peaks for the final day.

During our stay in New York,

and even while
in Massachusetts,

we've heard about
the High Peaks.

How the waters flow down
from those mountains,

how Bigfoot seems to follow
the pass down
from the High Peaks

during certain times
of the year.

Patterns upon patterns,

many of them mapped
by investigators
like Bill Brand and Steve Kulls

or noted by authors
like Paul Bartholomew
and Bruce Hallenbeck.

It's hard to look at the maps
that Steve has compiled

and not see pieces of a puzzle
slowly compiled
over the course of decades.

If Bigfoot isn't real,
then why are there
consistent sightings

at certain points of the year
in certain areas

with creatures that behave
in very specific ways?

Why do sightings
seem to correlate
to seasonal changes,

types of habitat,
water sources, food sources?

But at the same time,
I've just spent a week here,

heard a lot
of fascinating stories,

and aside from
a very suspicious wood knock,

haven't experienced
much of anything for myself.

Then again,
guys like Dave McCullough
and Paul Bartholomew

has spent their entire lives
in this area

and neither have had a sighting

despite spending hours
and even days of their time
on the hunt.

I think
on a psychological level,

it's sort of been
incumbent on humanity

to delimit between
sort of chaos and order,

and our brains are sort of
necessarily noticed patterns.

And anything that doesn't
function outside that pattern

is at best a mystery

or at worst,
like a threat of some kind.

And Bigfoot seems
to kind of represent

that... That mystery,
maybe threat,

that as conscious beings,
we want to grapple with.

And so it's sort of a mystery...

It's sort of an embodiment
of that mystery

that human beings
just like to grapple with.

That we like to ask questions
of things that are beyond us

and we want to figure things out

that don't readily
present themselves
to us clearly.

Do you have any regrets... uh,

about your, I guess, your time

researching the paranormal
and...

I have not seen Champ.

I have not seen
the Kinderhook Creature.

I have not seen
the Whitehall Beast.

I've heard some things
that I can't explain.

My only regrets for, you know,
being a cryptozoologist,

if that's what I am is, uh,

that I have never seen
my quarry.

Do you have any regrets?

[SIGHS] That I didn't
get started in earlier.

It's a passion.

There's fights there,
there's causes, there's...

I've never been the one
to shy away from it.

If people don't like me or...

You know, 'cause I believe
or I do this kind of stuff,

then they're not
really my friend.

It hasn't
cost me relationships.

At least not that I think of.

I'm not super obsessed.

Normally, I would ask people,
like, "Do you have any regrets

"about all the time
you have put into this?"
and that sort of thing.

Do you sort of see this
as a lifelong thing

or, you know, you think you'll
reach a point where... Where
you sort of move away from it?

Bigfoot is going to be
in my life forever.

I love this creature.

I've fallen in love
with the mystery
and the science behind it.

I've fallen in love
with the chase of trying
to find evidence of it.

What intrigues me most
about the Bigfoot phenomenon

is that there is a creature
roaming the forests
of the United States.

This creature
is eight to 10 feet tall,

dark in color,

screams louder than anything
you've ever heard,

yet science has not
officially discovered it yet.

I want to find this creature.

I want to learn
about its behaviors.

I wanna learn about its brain
and its capabilities.

And that is what drives me
to keep going on this search.

SETH: I think the reason
I wanna go up isn't just

to see the scenery
or that sort of thing,

but to actually get a lay
of just how expansive
the place is.

I think a lot of people
don't understand the size
and scope of the park either.

How much habitat there is
for something like a Bigfoot
to exist out here?

Well, just other wildlife too.
I mean, if you think about it,

we've been skirting
sort of the edges here.

I mean, we've mostly been
in the southern

and a little bit
south-central portions
or the eastern portion.

And now we're going
directly in the center

where the High Peaks'
wilderness is.

-Yeah.
-So there's just so much there.

There's parts that are
four hours from us
as we stand here now.

So we're not going
to those parts right now.

So it will just be a good way
to cover terrain

we probably wouldn't do
with a car in a week,
let alone a month.

Like you said, I think
getting out into it a little bit

even though we're not
gonna be on the ground,

is gonna be... It's gonna be
really cool to see.

And to get an idea
of the expanse like,

because I think we only see
so much standing here,

but up from there,
you can really tell, like,
is there enough room?

SETH: The first thing I notice
is the flatlands

that lie just at the foot
of the mountains,

the same flatlands
where Whitehall sits.

When you hear
that Whitehall is at the base
of the Adirondack Mountains,

it's literal.

It sits just below them

with the forested hills
spilling into
the same pastureland

that you find around places
like Abair Road,

And then the lakes.

The lakes
fed by mountain streams.

Lake George, and above it,
Buck Mountain,

where we'd spent
the first night of our trek.

Buck Mountain connects
to the same forest

that run down
from those High Peaks.

It's easy for me to speculate

that maybe there are
so many Bigfoot sightings
around that particular area

because, as with Whitehall,

the creatures
follow the streams
down in the winter

to seek shelter
in the coniferous forests
around the lake.

We spend
what seems like an eternity
flying over mountains

that rise ever higher into
the sky with endless green

only broken up by
the occasional river or lake.

And then our pilot
comes over the radio

and points toward the distance

and introduces us
to the High Peaks,

the last frontier
of the East Coast...

just the place for an
undiscovered animal to hide.

Suddenly, it makes
a little more sense

as to why so many feel pulled
to these mountains.

Here, just on the outskirts
of civilization,

lies over six million acres
of cover.

For Bigfoot, if it exists,

it's cover from the prying eyes
of human beings.

For us, it's cover
from the chaos of a world
slowly decaying from within.

It's a place to get lost

and I'm happy
to lose myself here.

Personally, I just view nature
as something I could not
live without.

Just getting out
on the mountains,

I don't know how I would
kind of function without it.

I think it really goes
perfectly hand in hand

with cryptozoology,
with Bigfoot, of course,

because these are the areas
that this being
is purported to exist in.

So how could I not want
to just spend some time

and have a little bit
of that wonder?

I think sometimes
a trip like this

could be framed
in terms of an escape.

But for me,
it wasn't so much an escape

as it was an embrace of life,

the way that I like living it.

Embracing the fact
that there are risks inherent
in everything that we do.

But what on the trail of,
enabled us all to do,

is to make our own assessment
of the risks again

and say, "You know what?

"To go and do this right now,
at this time in history,

"in this time in our own lives,

"it's worth it."

I want to not just exist.

I wanna do more than survive.

You know, I wanna live life.

And being out here in the woods
and on the mountains

and searching
after a mysterious creature

is living through
a time of challenge

instead of just existing.

SETH: Wait, I don't think you...

ADAM: I've been here for,
this is my fourth time here.

I had no clue how vast
the Adirondacks were.

We took that flight,

and to come out of the area
that I have been to,

that I have experience going to,

and see that I haven't even been
at the tip of the iceberg
of the Adirondacks

and how expansive it is

especially when you get up
into these High Peaks.

I mean, just that fact
that it is one of the largest
managed parks in America.

A lot of people think
you have to go West
for that kind of stuff.

No, it's right here in New York
of all places.

Obviously, it's in your city.

I think for me, just comparing
it to what I'm familiar with
in New England,

where there is
a lot of wildlife as well,

and there's a lot of terrain
and the same kind of thing,

people don't associate it
with that.

So if you combine
parts of Vermont,

Western Massachusetts as we saw
with this area,

you have millions of acres,
essentially,

where you can get
from one state to the other,

to the Canadian border and back.

You've got suitable habitat
for large animals

such as moose
and black bear already,

so why wouldn't something else
simply adapt?

And it seems like
every little town we've been to,

there's been sightings here
or a Bigfoot story.

Even down the Kinderhook,
which isn't even
in the Adirondacks.

This really, I mean,
you get into this particular

the northern third,
I suppose, of the Adirondacks,

and it's much more mountainous.

And the other thing, too,
that just struck me, again,

is the sheer amount
of waterways.

Mountain streams, lakes.

And what we were looking
at a map of the Adirondacks
this afternoon,

and just the number
of inland lakes,

connecting streams.

It's just when we talk
about the habitat
that would be necessary,

not only do you have
the sheer acreage

but the water sources
that you would need

for a population
of larger creature.

The biggest thing for me
was probably going to...

As weird as it is,
going down to the Poultney River

and being able
to geographically figure out

how those sightings
follow that river.

And so Whitehall to me
previously

was a really fascinating,
isolated case.

Since seeing Steve's maps
and talking to Paul
about all the sightings,

and hearing about
the Kinderhook Creature,

and then spilling over
in the Western Massachusetts

and finding that the same thing
is going on there as well,

there's a much bigger picture
that we're looking at.

There's that saying that
there are two elements
to a Bigfoot encounter.

You know, there's gotta be
a Bigfoot.

Then there has to be a person.

You add in a space
like the Adirondacks to that,

there is plenty of room
for a Bigfoot,

and it is more than vast enough

for that person
to never come into the picture.

What was so, uh, moving,
I guess, in a certain way,

was to see the camaraderie
that built up with these groups
that go out together.

Just by dint of spending time
with one another,

and being dedicated
to this cause, as it were,

you get to know each other

just because you're
out in the woods
multiple times a month...

regardless
of what you discover.

To really, like, start to see
the drive those guys have

and the desire
to keep coming out,

they all have
their... Their disparate reasons

for why they're coming out
and doing what they're doing.

SETH: Most investigators
spend years of their lives

in the forest
looking for Bigfoot.

We spent five days
in this part of the country

and in that time
saw nothing for ourselves

that could equate
to Sasquatch activity.

But the vast landscapes
and acres of forest
helped explain that for us.

And on the sixth day, as we
drove back to the real world,

a world overrun
with a pandemic,

rumors of wars
and civil unrest,

none of us felt
that the journey
had been a failure.

The target had eluded us,

and yet its presence
was always felt.

In the months to follow,
the world around us
grew only more tumultuous

and my desire to head back
to the forests
of the Adirondacks

became more and more prevalent.

Like Bigfoot itself,
those mountains called to me

to come and experience
something different.

Something extraordinary.

A call to escape,
to wander, to get lost.

The journey is calling...
and I must go.