BWBS Ep:138 The Thing in the Mountains

What happens when two seasoned hunters head deep into the north Georgia mountains looking for a problem bear—and stumble onto something they can’t explain? This story has been buried for more than forty years. Now, for the first time, one of the only two men who lived through it is ready to talk about what really happened in the fall of 1983.It all started in a quiet corner of north Georgia where dogs began disappearing, cattle were turning up dead, and the locals were convinced a rogue bear was to blame.

But not everything lined up. There were strange howls echoing through the valleys at night, and tracks that looked almost like bear prints—but not quite. Even the livestock were acting nervous in ways old ranchers couldn’t make sense of. That’s when two lifelong friends decided enough was enough. They packed up their rifles and gear and hiked into the backcountry determined to find whatever was responsible. What they discovered on that October hunt would change them forever—and bind them to a secret they carried for decades. This story comes straight from one of those men. He’s in his seventies now, and after his hunting partner passed away in 2019, he decided it was finally time to talk. He’s not looking for fame or attention—he just wants to tell the truth before it dies with him.

As he tells it, the deeper they pushed into the forest, the stranger things became. A deer carcass was wedged high in a tree—nearly twenty feet up—with its neck twisted completely backward. Enormous footprints appeared in soft mud, too wide and too deep to belong to any known animal. Trees were bent and splintered, clawed and gouged as if something massive had moved through. And then… came the moment that still haunts him to this day. The face-to-face encounter with something that, by all accounts, shouldn’t exist. What makes this account so gripping is its honesty.

There’s no embellishment, no dramatics—just the plain words of a man who’s lived with the memory for over forty years. It’s a story about what happens when ordinary people come up against something extraordinary, and how that kind of truth can weigh on a person for the rest of their life.He doesn’t ask you to believe him. He just wants to tell you what he saw—and let you decide for yourself.

So settle in. We’re heading back to the north Georgia wilderness, 1983.

Two hunters went into the mountains looking for a bear. What they found was something much bigger—something that walked upright—and something that’s been hiding in those woods long before any of us ever set foot there. This is his story. This is what happened. And after more than four decades of silence, it’s finally being told.

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Backwoods Bigfoot Stories is a paranormal storytelling podcast featuring real Bigfoot encounters, Sasquatch sightings, Dogman reports, cryptid experiences, and true scary stories from the backwoods.

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