{"version":1,"type":"rich","provider_name":"Libsyn","provider_url":"https:\/\/www.libsyn.com","height":90,"width":600,"title":"SC EP:1213 The Hunting Shack","description":"John writes \u201cOctober 2025, there were a few of us sitting around the table in our off\u2011grid hunting shack, just enjoying each other\u2019s company. For context, we\u2019re deep in the PNW backcountry: no power, no civilization for miles, and no motorized vehicles allowed anywhere near the place. Out of nowhere we heard a thud on the side of the shack. My wife said, \u201cThere\u2019s something outside,\u201d but a friend brushed it off, saying it was probably just a piece of firewood settling in the stove. So we ignored it. A moment later, another thud, louder this time. Three of us got up, opened the door, and checked down the side of the shack where the sound came from, but there was nothing there. Convinced it was probably nothing, two of us headed back inside while the third said he needed to use the shitter (our name for the outhouse). We had barely sat down again when, just seconds later, he, let\u2019s call him \u201cJ\u201d came sprinting back inside, not even making it to the outhouse. He blurted out, \u201cThere\u2019s something out there,\u201d and the fear on his face was real. This is a military veteran who\u2019s seen his share of things, and he said whatever it was made a deep exhale or grunt from just outside. So J, S, and I went back out. We\u2019d only walked about 15\u201320 feet toward the shitter before stopping. The outhouse sits around 40\u201350 feet from where we stood, with no trees between us. Behind it, though, the timber tightens up. I saw it first. \u201cWhat the hell is that?\u201d I said. What I saw was a small red glowing light, pulsing faintly. A minute later J said, \u201cWhat the hell is that?\u201d he had finally locked onto it too. S still couldn\u2019t see it yet. The red light looked like a tiny, dim LED, pulsing on and off. The night was pitch\u2011black\u2014so dark I couldn\u2019t see my hand in front of my face. Whenever I stared directly at the light, it would vanish, and I\u2019d have to move my head around, almost like searching around branches for an angle. Then it would reappear\u2026 then vanish again\u2026 then reappear somewhere slightly different. At one point, I saw three separate red lights at the same time, all at different heights but roughly eye\u2011level. Always single lights, never two together like eyes. That\u2019s when S finally said, \u201cWhat the hell\u2026\u201d and he was clearly shaken. He\u2019d been scanning the area with a thermal scope the whole time and seeing nothing until suddenly he saw what he described as a face, a circular white heat signature peeking from behind a tree or stump before disappearing again. After that, the red light on the far right appeared noticeably closer, now unobstructed by any branches. S kept saying, \u201cRed\u2026 off\u2026 red\u2026 off\u2026 red\u2026 off\u2026\u201d in rhythm with the pulsing. We\u2019ve had three other strange experiences over the past decade that we\u2019ve never been able to explain, one was an extremely loud and heavy scream that terrified all of us, and the other involved a group of large ground nests. All of those seemed like possible Bigfoot\u2011related activity. Because of that history, it almost feels logical that these red lights might be connected. What I\u2019m trying to figure out is whether you\u2019ve ever come across anything like this, or if you know of any accounts describing similar red lights. I\u2019m obsessive when it comes to researching things, but I keep running into dead ends, mostly references to red glowing eyes or floating orbs. This wasn\u2019t eye shine; there was no light source to reflect off of. And the orb stories I\u2019ve found don\u2019t match what we saw either. This experience doesn\u2019t resemble anything I\u2019ve come across in the short time I\u2019ve been digging into it.\u201d We will also be speaking to Marissa, she writes \u201cI\u2019ve gone back and forth about writing to you because I\u2019m not sure how relevant my experience really is but after hearing witnesses on your show describe encounters with dogman-type creatures, I can\u2019t help wondering if what we saw might fit into that category. My boyfriend, Brian, and I live full-time in a truck camper, traveling around the U.S. This happened in mid-July, when we were camped on BLM land past the Delta-09 Missile Silo, just outside Badlands National Park. It was a full-moon night, but we set up camp while there was still daylight. We made a fire, Brian cooked dinner and almost immediately after we arrived, I noticed something odd. A herd of cows in the distance suddenly came running over a hill, almost as if they were spooked. For the next several hours, as we ate and the sun went down, those cows made nonstop distressed sounds. We couldn\u2019t see them, but we could hear them, and it was eerie. One of my dogs refused to get out of the truck as well, which was extremely unusual for her. Eventually, once the moon rose, the cows went silent. The night was beautiful, so we decided to take a moonlit walk along the dirt road with our other dog. We walked maybe half a mile and then laid down to look at the stars. We\u2019d been on the ground less than a minute when my dog gave an alert bark. We sat up, and about 60 yards ahead of us, we saw a large black figure. My first thought was that it was a cow until my eyes adjusted and I realized it had canine features. I tried to convince myself it was a coyote, even though it was far too big. We aimed our flashlights at it, and that\u2019s when everything turned strange. It had no eye shine at all. I\u2019ve lived in the woods most of my life; every animal I\u2019ve ever seen at night reflects light. But this thing\u2019s eyes were just\u2026 black holes. The entire body almost seemed to absorb the light rather than reflect it. No matter how many times we shone our beams on it, no more detail appeared. It just stayed this pitch-black shape, panting loudly far louder than you\u2019d expect from that distance. I had the unsettling feeling that it was staring directly into my eyes and that it was intelligent, more so than any wild animal I\u2019ve encountered. We yelled at it, but it didn\u2019t flinch or move. A normal coyote would\u2019ve bolted. I told Brian, \u201cI don\u2019t want that thing behind me,\u201d which is not how I react to coyotes at all. We started heading back to camp me walking forward, Brian walking backward to keep an eye on it. Later, when we talked it through, things got even stranger. There were two of them. I had been so fixated on the one in front of us that I completely missed a second creature off to our right closer, and according to Brian, noticeably larger. Brian isn\u2019t someone who believes in Bigfoot, dogmen, skinwalkers, or anything of that nature, but he said it felt like the one farther away the one I was staring at was in control of the closer one, almost like an owner and a dog. He also said its legs looked blurry or formless when the light hit them, which matched what I felt but didn\u2019t say out loud. As he kept watch, both creatures followed us for about a quarter mile, staying just far enough back, until they finally slipped into the hills. Almost immediately after they disappeared, the cows started up again with the same panicked cries from earlier. We\u2019ve gone over this experience so many times, and we always land in the same place: those were not coyotes. They were something neither of us can explain. So I\u2019m reaching out to ask have you heard other reports of canine-like creatures with jet-black eyes and no eye shine? Does this sound more like something people attribute to a skinwalker, or is a dogman encounter a possibility? I know humans lack eye shine, but these things were absolutely not human. I haven\u2019t been able to find anything online that matches, other than a general trend of strange reports from the Badlands. I\u2019d really love to hear your thoughts on what we might\u2019ve seen.\u201d       ","author_name":"Sasquatch Chronicles","author_url":"http:\/\/sasquatchchronicles.libsyn.com\/site","html":"