[narrator] Previously on Expedition Bigfoot...
If we're going to find Bigfoot, this is the place we're going to do it.
[Mireya] Is it possible for us to get in there?
I can't get in there with this boat, so we're gonna have to take the skiff.
We've decided to stick close to these rivers
because those are a hotbed of wildlife activity.
There's something down there.
You see that?
It looks like someone's just standing there. Holy [bleep].
[Mireya] Holy crap.
Ronny? Something just moved past me this way.
[Ronny] Whoa!
There's something out there.
You had an encounter with a Bigfoot.
Can you tell me a little bit about that?
Yeah. I was coming down this road.
This figure steps onto the roadway.
[tires screech]
Oh, [bleep], what the [bleep] was that?
The chest was massive.
It was eight feet tall, somewhere around 1,000 pounds.
Something crossed the road right here.
[creature howling]
[tires screech]
What the [bleep] was that?
[Bryce] Did you see it cross the road?
Something crossed the road right here.
Dude, my heart's racing.
[narrator] Using a mobile reconnaissance vehicle
equipped with a dozen night vision and thermal cameras,
Bryce is investigating the road known for Bigfoot crossings
near the eastern edge of the Olympic Peninsula.
He believes he has just seen a large creature run across the road.
Gonna grab this thing.
I'm just going to get out and check out with the thermal.
All right.
Hmm.
So, whatever that was that lobbed across the road,
it was right here.
It went right into these woods.
If I see anything, I could capture it on thermal,
Thermal can see for up to a mile.
This place is dead quiet.
There's nothing on the ground.
I don't see anything.
Dang.
I don't know what that was.
I can't wait to go back and look at the video.
I mean, whatever it was, we got it on camera.
Maybe the video will hold more details.
[Bryce] If it is a good print, I'm hoping we can find some more around it.
[narrator] Just 48 hours into their expedition,
primatologist Dr. Mireya Mayor and researcher Ronny Leblanc
are focusing their investigation on the hundreds of waterways
within their target zone.
These rivers and streams are chock-full of salmon,
a believed staple of the local Bigfoot diet.
After traveling along a river from the Hood Canal,
the team is returning to a spot where Mireya believes she found a footprint.
The possible print is just 300 yards from the river.
[Ronny] Besides getting great video evidence,
for a researcher to find a footprint or a set of footprints
is like the Holy Grail,
and some of the most famous track ways were found here in Washington.
[narrator] Dozens of Bigfoot tracks have been discovered in Washington state,
and many of them on the Olympic Peninsula.
One of the most noteworthy came in 1982
when a local deputy sheriff cast several very large prints
just seven miles from the team's target zone.
These casts revealed intricate details like skin creases
and evidence of a thick sole pad that many believe would be impossible to fake.
[Ronny] Did not see this last night.
It just didn't feel like it was this accessible.
Feels a lot more open during the day, that's for sure.
Let's see.
It's right over here.
- Right there. - Oh, gotcha.
[Mireya] This just stood out because of the relative shape
and the heavyset indentation.
Are you thinking heel is...
Heel is at that end.
- This end, right? - Yeah.
- So, it's going on... - 'Cause it's narrow, and then it broadens out
- at the front. - Okay.
I see what you mean.
This does look like the heel of a foot,
but the average Bigfoot print is about 15 inches.
This is smaller.
Have there ever been any juvenile prints found?
There have, and that's been questionable because of the size that they're so small
that researchers are kind of on the fence, whether it's human or not.
That's strange, though, because even with a well-known primate,
- you're going to see that size difference. - Right.
Silverback gorillas can weigh up to 500 pounds
and the tallest recorded was six feet tall.
But when baby gorillas are born, they're a mere five pounds.
It's not unusual to see different size tracks amongst a population of animals.
The fact of the matter is, is that we are far and remote,
and the likelihood of a human leaving this is pretty small,
so I can't rule out that what we're looking at here is a juvenile print.
We know there's a game trail.
We know there's the water source.
This area is definitely a hot spot.
The river is right below us, isn't it?
This footprint doesn't have enough details for us to cast it or scan it.
But what happened to Mireya here is very interesting,
and we're directly above where the salmon are spawning.
We're trying to connect the dots here, and I definitely want to see
what we can find on this river.
[Mireya] Let's make our way down.
[Ronny] There we go.
It's getting greener. You can actually feel the coolness.
[narrator] Eight miles from Ronny and Mireya's position,
survivalist Russell Acord or is making his way down to an area below a cliff,
where he believes he spotted a figure standing motionless,
using his thermal binoculars.
Right here, it's an upright, red...
Do you see that?
It looks like someone standing.
[narrator] Using info gathered from satellite imagery,
Bryce believes the area Russell is approaching
may contain a large concentration of wild berries
and may be a prime target to spot Bigfoot.
[Russell] Food is everywhere here.
It seems like Bryce's intel was right.
Look at this.
Huckleberries everywhere.
Protein, vegetation, animals.
Bigfoot is an omnivore.
It will eat whatever is available to it.
Could survive out here for a long time.
Look at this.
There's a game trail that runs off here to the right.
[Russell] We think that huckleberry patch goes for a couple of miles
It's going to take me a while to explore that area,
but it's a great sign that our system is working.
If there's huckleberries all through here, I should find evidence
of whatever it was that was walking on that bridge last night.
Bet I'm awful close to where I need to be.
Yeah, that's a pretty well-used game trail right here.
I wanna show you something. See how this game trail goes,
right up against this tree?
I'm going to say that a lot of the game that goes through here is deer.
If it was somebody like a human, it would have knocked these off by now.
We're getting bigger prints.
Right here, here's a typical hoof.
This is the back of the hoof, when the point drives in. It leaves a triangular mark.
But this is an active trail, big time.
I mean, this is a... a nice little dense place.
You can move through here quite freely and not be seen by anything.
And the soft ground
will let you walk through here fairly quietly.
You know...
I think there's something below us.
I feel like something moved in the trees down here.
Right, I see a spot right here
where we can actually sit for a while, listen to the sounds.
So we wanna go sit on the hub of this trail.
Let's see if anything from down below will make its way up to us.
Any big game hunter or military sniper will tell you
movement in the field is the first thing that gets noticed.
So, if you don't have a blind and you want to conceal yourself,
you have to remain still, completely still.
It's deadly quiet.
Can you hear little bit of the wind from well above us?
But nothing in this forest right now is moving at all.
So, we just get comfortable and wait it out.
Something's gotta move.
So, the other night, we found a road that we thought was extremely active.
And I had eight cameras set up on this SUV.
And now, I've brought in all the footage and I'm going to take a look.
I saw something cross the road.
I don't know what it was, but hopefully this footage holds the answers.
It happened so fast.
Okay, let me just see if I can slow this down here.
Right there.
There it is.
Let me see if I can zoom in here. Hold on.
Yeah, that's a little better.
Right here.
Like a little ball of light moving across the road.
It's very strange.
It's hard to tell, but something definitely crossed the road.
And, uh... And who knows, you know, we've seen orbs.
What is that?
We've also seen red eyes shine.
Eyes.
[Bryce] This could be anything.
I just need more information.
Why don't we go to that thermal video?
I just want to pull that up to see if we can, uh, maybe get some more detail,
perhaps discern if whatever it was had any type of body heat to it.
Just keep it slow.
Oh.
What the [bleep] is that?
That is crazy.
This could be anything.
I just need more information.
Why don't we go to that thermal video,
see if we can, uh, maybe get some more detail?
Oh.
What the [bleep] is that?
[narrator] While reviewing the thermal footage from last night's investigation,
Bryce has just spotted what appears to be a figure crossing the road.
I think it doesn't look so much like a ball of light anymore,
but it looks like...
I don't know to me, I feel like I see...
I see legs. Kind of blowing my mind.
I feel like I see a bipedal creature crossing the road.
Obviously, whatever it is has some sort of a heat signature as well.
I mean, it's always possible this was a human.
We were on a man-made road.
But if this is just some guy crossing the road,
then why did I see it as an orb light?
And then when you see it on the thermal,
it looks like a Bigfoot crossing the road.
You know, what's interesting is when we caught this, I was heading south,
and, uh, whatever this was was moving towards Ronny and Mireya's position.
[narrator] Nine miles from Russell's position,
Ronny and Mireya are making their way from the site of the possible juvenile footprint
down to the river below them to search for more evidence.
[Ronny] Look at this.
These little arches.
- This one and that one over here. - [Mireya] These?
They're both pointing in the same, like, direction, which is curious.
Just trying to think how that would kind of get like that.
That looks like it's been...
Pushed down, something, like, still going in that same direction.
Looks like this...
Like this is in here as well.
[Ronny] Huh.
Well, the thing is, if we were to take these out,
this tree would snap back into position.
Right. So it was bent down and...
So, something bent this and then locked it in here
- using this. - Yeah.
Something had to weave this in.
There's several trees intertwined, and there's one branch
that's holding the bent one over in place.
This is not natural.
Hey, Ronny, are these in the direction of the creek bed?
They are, actually.
You're right.
They're pointing this way.
It's almost like guiding you up.
It falls in line with a lot of the different markers
that people believe Bigfoot is kind of setting up, in directionals.
That would imply that whatever created this structure
has the ability to comprehend
- a symbolic pattern of communication. - [Ronny] Right.
And to use it creatively and to use it with purpose,
that would take an incredibly intelligent animal.
So, why would the creek be significant?
It's almost like a playpen.
A nursery.
Younger ones would stay in that, almost like a blind.
Well, that's interesting, because in a lot of primate species
they will very often park their babies somewhere, and then they go off
- into the forest, and they look for food. - Wow.
Primates are very protective, and they don't want to expose them to possible dangers
when they're out foraging for food or hunting.
So, it makes perfect sense that an animal would hide their young near the creek bed
because it's far more protected.
It's close enough to the river where they have a main source of food, the salmon.
This all makes sense from a biological standpoint.
I think this is all kind of connected here.
I want to follow this. I want to keep on going.
This is significant to me.
[Ronny] The fact that we find a juvenile-sized footprint
in the same location where Mireya had her encounter.
All of these trees pointing in the same direction, the creek bed,
the salmon in the river below.
This is a hot spot, and we're connecting all the dots.
It makes sense for us to do our investigation here.
[narrator] Bigfoot is here.
We've been here for probably a couple hours.
I'm just kind of sitting it out.
[narrator] After hearing a large creature moving nearby,
Russell Acord is using a hunting strategy similar to still hunting,
moving as little as possible while waiting for the animal to reveal itself.
I can hear the small birds, that's it.
It's all I've got.
Shh.
Can you smell that?
That's strong.
[rustling]
Oh, [bleep], it's here.
Whatever it is, it's here.
[rustling]
Oh, [bleep], it's here.
Whatever it is, it's here.
[Russell] Whatever is moving over there, it's close.
I've been here long enough.
I'm gonna head over in the direction of that sound.
Look at that.
Just a lot of really interesting...
Depressions in the ground.
It's not like a hoof that drives in.
This is something flat.
It's not a deer, that's for dang sure.
That's interesting.
Of course, we know we're sharing the forest with
mountain lions and bears and deer.
This doesn't look like any of those.
Look at the hair on my arms.
This is the creepiest piece of forest I've been in since we've been in Washington.
Whoa, whoa, [bleep].
Another depression right there.
All along here, we keep seeing those flat spots on the trail.
We'll keep going down this way, see if we find anything else.
Holy [bleep]. Look at that.
Look at the size of that.
It's massive.
Look at that.
Something with a lot of weight pressed right there.
[Russell] I saw something really big on that ridge last night,
and right now, there's something moving around me in the forest,
and here in front of me, I'm looking at this massive footprint.
This is definitely the right place to be.
See this, the heel difference?
That's flat all the way through.
And that's sharp edges all the way around that heel.
Whatever made that print was heavy.
Did you see me having to stomp on this
to push it down?
I wanna mark this, uh, location
and save it.
Perfect.
I could be in a main thoroughfare here.
I need to stick around
and investigate in this area tonight.
I'm excited to speak with an eyewitness named Roger.
He had an encounter near a waterway or a river.
And I think he's the perfect eyewitness
because right now we are right in the middle of combing
the waterways and rivers of the Olympic Peninsula.
So often times, the smallest little clue
can really sometimes just crack a case wide open.
Hey, there.
Hey, Roger. How you doing, man?
Thanks for taking the time to talk with me, man.
No problem.
So I understand that you had
possibly a Bigfoot encounter when you were camping.
Is that right?
Absolutely. Mmm-hmm.
How long ago was this, Roger?
Oh, gosh. It was 16, 17 years ago.
- Quite some time ago. - Oh, wow. Gotcha.
Do you remember getting a good look at this thing's face?
I'll start with that.
I mean, you know, it was... [clears throat]
It was so long ago and it happened so fast.
I vaguely remember it, to be honest with you.
It was a long time ago.
I don't talk about it very much.
Totally understand.
Roger, do you remember being able to see
any of the details of this creature?
How tall it was?
Male or female, young or old?
No, I honestly... I really don't.
It ran by so quick. I don't remember it looking at me.
I hardly remember looking at it.
It was really terrifying.
And I just remember trying to make myself as small as possible.
The details are kind of fuzzy.
Does it ever bother you that,
you know, you can't seem to grasp a lot of the details
of what you saw, or...
You know, I just want to apologize, at the time,
because like I did say,
it really was so long ago, and it happened so fast.
It's kind of fuzzy, so...
Well, Roger, listen, thank you for taking the time
to speak with me today.
If I do remember anything,
I'll definitely get back in contact with you.
Yeah, that sounds great.
You have my information.
I appreciate it.
You bet.
- All right, thanks, Roger. - You're welcome.
All right. Well,
unfortunately, that didn't go as planned.
It sounds like whatever it was he saw
had a tremendous impact on him.
I just wish he could remember some of those finer details
that really helps paint a picture.
I don't know. I'm not done with this witness.
I... I know he saw something.
Where I had the weird activity,
- If you see that log lying there... - Yeah.
...it was just past that around the corner.
So, actually, I think if we get up in here a little bit
since that's where I heard the sound,
- it was on that side... - Yeah.
...we might be able to get something.
So I think we place a trail cam
- on that tree right there. - Okay.
And then we just keep going further
till we get to the spot where I heard the sound.
All right. Yeah.
Tonight we're gonna stay here and litter this area with trail cams.
And then we're gonna position ourselves along the river.
If this is a spot where they're leaving their young to go and hunt,
we're gonna be right where they're gonna be.
I want to see if I can set a couple
going in this direction alone.
Back toward the main river.
All right. And I'm gonna get closer to the area
- where it actually happens. - Okay. Sounds good.
These areas are what I call prime property
because you have great places to hide.
You've got really good food sources,
and you've got a water source right there.
It's also where animals can get ambushed because,
of course, predators know that,
and they also come to the water sources.
[Ronny speaking]
[narrator] Coming up...
[high-pitched call]
[distant growl]
Did you hear that?
[Roger] Splashing, running, getting closer,
and it was really heavy.
Roger, what do you think this thing is?
Tonight we've got a full moon,
and typically during a full moon,
animals tend to come out.
Uh, guys, what is that?
This.
Seriously, what is that?
What do you think the game plan should be?
So, because the evidence we've been tracking
is in different locations,
let's split up tonight.
I'll go down near the water's edge,
because we know the river is a main food source.
But the possible footprint and the creek bed
are on the ridge above the river.
So if you stay high and I go low,
- we might have a better chance of spotting them. - Okay.
And just sit there silently,
hang back and just see what comes in?
Yeah, stealth is key for this.
Okay, let's divide and conquer.
All right.
[narrator] Mireya will position herself along the river
while Ronny will stake out the ridge above,
where the team discovered a possible juvenile footprint.
[Mireya] We've all noticed how quiet this forest is.
There's a real stillness that feels slightly unnatural.
But tonight we've got a full moon,
and typically, during a full moon,
animals tend to come out.
They're more active.
And so I'm expecting that we're going to get
a lot more activity out here than usual.
[whispering] There's a bear print here.
Right there.
And there's bear scat right over here.
You can see where the animals have been bedding down in this area.
It's all matted down.
At the edge of a river,
you're gonna see little paths
that the animals very commonly use.
It just becomes its own natural little highway.
So I'll quickly flash a light and see
if I see any highways down to the water.
Already right there you can see that
that's an area that animals use
to get down to the water to drink.
And because these rivers act as barriers...
This one here is shallow enough
that an animal could very easily walk across.
So that's an area that I would really want to keep my eyes on.
This would be a good spot where I can hunker down.
[whispering] I kinda like this spot right here.
It's very dead and quiet right now.
If I stay still, give it 15 minutes,
the forest will start coming alive again.
I have to just stay in position and remain quiet.
We'll start seeing some activity start picking up.
[insects trilling]
[narrator] After spotting a strange figure on a hillside
and then discovering a massive footprint,
Russell positions himself on the ridge
directly above the print.
Okay.
Tonight, we're gonna run the uh, sound.
And I'm also gonna be running the night vision goggles.
[narrator] Russell will be using the team's compact speaker system
to blast a possible Bigfoot sound
in the hopes of bringing the creature out from hiding.
This audio sound that we're going to use
is from a personal friend of mine.
His focus is the Olympic Peninsula.
The audio that we'll be using was actually taken
from a location not very far from here.
We're gonna see if we can coax this thing out in the open
and get that evidence we're looking for.
Okay.
- Ready? - Ready.
[high-pitched howling plays]
[Ronny] Yeah, let's just sit for a little bit.
[cameraman] I'm still recording, which is good.
[distant growl]
[growling continues]
- Did you hear that? - Yeah.
Holy crap!
- Ready? - Ready.
[high-pitched howling plays]
[distant growl]
[distant growl continues]
- Did you hear that? - Yeah.
- Holy crap. - It's down there.
[Ronny] No, there's no clouds.
[cameraman] Could you track down this thing?
[Ronny] I couldn't tell you what that was.
It was something back this way.
There's nothing but dense forest behind us.
What would have made that sound?
Let's just sit for a little bit.
It can start to get cold out here in the evenings.
Yeah, the wind's not helping us at all, is it?
Interesting.
At this time, it seems to be a very, very quiet, calm night...
with nothing really moving.
Tomorrow I want to call Ronny and Mireya
and let them know what I found here.
We'll see if they're getting any kind of track signatures
or anything like that.
Whatever made that print was heavy.
But for now, I think that's it.
I still believe Roger has the potential
to be an amazing witness.
His encounter took place inside our target zone
along a river.
The problem is, he just can't remember any of the details.
Ronny and Mireya are exploring these rivers as we speak.
So if we could get Roger to recall the details of his experience,
that informs us about the behavior of local Bigfoot,
making them easier to find.
[narrator] To help unlock the witness's memories,
Bryce has arranged to meet with a practitioner of ultra-depth hypnosis.
This technique delves far deeper into the subconscious
than traditional hypnosis,
and has been known to help some recall memories
that have been hidden for decades.
- [Doug] You ready? - Mmm-hmm.
- Great. - All right.
So what I want you to do,
first thing is, I want you to close your eyes.
Press down on my hand.
Press harder, harder.
Sleep. Deeper breaths.
There you go. Just deeply relaxed.
Every breath you take,
every sound you hear,
takes you deeper and more relaxed.
And the more relaxed you are,
the clearer the memories will be.
The clearer the memories,
the more details you will be able to describe.
I'm going to count,
and when I reach three,
you're going to be right before the experience.
And what I want you to do is
I want you to describe it in as much detail as you can.
One.
Two.
Three.
I hear noises coming from far away.
Splashing, two feet running in the water.
Splash, splash, splash.
It was real close.
Then what happens next?
[Roger breathes heavily]
I could see it in the moonlight.
It smelled so bad.
It was so big.
I got really, really, really, really low to the ground
and didn't want it to see me.
I'm really worried.
Maybe just a coward, afraid.
Splashing, coming, running, getting closer.
And it was really heavy.
Roger, what do you think this thing is?
What's happening now?
I could just hear splash, splash, splash...
[narrator] Roger has entered a state of ultra-depth hypnosis
in an attempt to recollect details
from a possible Bigfoot encounter he had
over 15 years prior.
Scared me and I got really, really, really, really low to the ground.
And didn't want it to see me.
I'm really scared and I'm really worried.
Splash, splash, splash, splash,
getting closer and closer.
It ran by.
I was scared.
[Doug] You're scared.
Its hands were just huge, down to its knees.
It was running.
Its huge shoulders and no neck and this...
head was the size of my body.
Just huge.
Stop. What do you see right now?
It smelled like a... just a corpse or something.
Just something decaying. It was horrible.
Roger, you have your bolt-action rifle with you, yes?
Mmm-hmm.
You ever think about firing it?
It was gonna.
You were going to?
Yeah.
How come you didn't?
I don't want to kill a man.
It had to be a man.
I didn't know who would be out there, running.
Except it's not human.
Roger, what do you think this thing is?
It was... It was just...
It was a beast.
Does it belong to this world?
Yeah.
We don't belong where they live.
They've been there a long time.
One of those details that really stuck out to me
in Roger's encounter
was the fact that he described this creature
covered in sticks and fur,
and maybe these creatures are camouflaging themselves,
using parts of their environment.
I can't help but to think of ghillie suits.
[narrator] A ghillie suit is a type of camouflage
often used in the military
that is designed to resemble the surrounding environment.
Attaching local flora like plants and leaves
is a common tactic to make the suits more effective.
Maybe, just maybe,
that's what Bigfoot is doing as well.
This is exactly what happened with Mireya.
Something came at her from the woods
and then stopped,
and when she looked to see where it was,
she didn't see anything.
[narrator] Ronny and Mireya are 300 yards from one another,
staking out an area where they believe
they may have witnessed Bigfoot activity over the past 48 hours.
[whistling]
Hey Mireya, it's Ronnie. Can you hear me?
Hey, Ronny.
How's it going?
I'm down by the river.
I'm in position along the game trail.
I'm hiding.
[mimics call]
[calls loudly]
[whispers] Hey, Mireya, are you getting any activity?
[whispers] Ronny, I'm turning on the thermal
because there was a sound from the other side of the river.
Okay.
[mimics call]
Hey, Ronny, was that you making the call?
It was.
All right. I haven't seen anything.
It's so quiet. It's very eerie how quiet it is.
Yeah, it really is.
Uh, guys, what is that?
This.
What is that?
I'm just gonna move a little bit away from it
and come back to it.
There it is.
It's right on the water's edge.
And the signature is getting bigger.
Mireya, come in for Ronny.
Look, there's a shadow coming off the water from it.
The signature's getting bigger.
There's something there.
Mireya, come in for Ronny.
There's something there, and it's reflecting off the water.
Mireya's not responding.
Seriously, what is that?
[narrator] Next time on Expedition Bigfoot...
What the [bleep] is that?
[whispers] Ronny, I've got a huge heat signature.
And there's little white dots above its head.
I was shocked to see what I thought
was a giant man in a ghillie suit.
It stuck its hands over its face
and crouched down.
You're famous for capturing what's known as the Sierra sounds.
The sounds they heard was just uh,
way outside anything that they'd heard before.
[sounds playing]
Look at this, you guys. Something's been bedding here.
[Ronny] Oh, my gosh.
It was definitely trampled down.
Definitely something was here.
Whatever it is, it's big, stealthy,
which gives me the indication that we're being stalked.
Holy [bleep]. This thing is moving towards us.
- [grunting] - Holy [bleep].
It just grunted.
[grunting continues]