RMSO Bigfoot: Deer Hunter's Night Time Bigfoot Encounter

Thursday, November 2, 2023

Deer Hunter's Night Time Bigfoot Encounter - It Circled His Camp

Artist Rendition

Email your Bigfoot sighting to RMSObigfoot@gmail.com

String of Sasquatch Sightings near

Huron Forest in Michigan

Deer Hunter's Night Time Bigfoot Encounter -

It Circled His Camp

Mark R writes RMSO

It was back in the fall of 1978, and I was age 20 and in the military, stationed up at Wurtsmith AFB Oscoda Michigan. I was deer hunting that fall with my trusty bow-an-arrow on the edge of swamp like area in the Huron National Forest. I hunted alone and had been on the edge of this swamp hunting for about 2 weeks now and always had wondered what was on the other side.

So one fall weekend I decided to try to cross over to the other side and spend the night in search of that monster buck. I had my trusty bow, a long bayonet that I had ground down for fight’n bears and such, my back pack and a sleeping bag. Oh yes for those who don’t know what a bayonet is, it is a long knife that was used during the war to put on the end of your rifle for fight’n.

I put my wading boots on and worked all day to get to the other side. It was kind of a gloomy day, so I didn’t have the sun to go by and was hoping I didn’t get lost. I have a pretty good sense of the woods and where I am at but when it is gloomy, and the sun isn’t out you can get turned around pretty easy. Well after a long trek through the swamp I finally made it to the other side. No sooner were you on the other side, there was a small lake right on the edge of that swamp so there wasn’t really anywhere to go.

I decided to set up camp with the swamp on one side and the lake on the other. There were a few evergreens nicely placed and I decided this would make a comfortable spot. I didn’t ever use a tent in those days, I don’t even think I owned one as a matter of fact, so I just layed my sleeping bag right out on the ground next to a nice fury evergreen. I planted that old bayonet into the side of the tree and hung my bow from it. I went out and gathered up a little firewood to start a fire and cooked up some grub. It was starting to get dark and I didn’t carry any kind of flashlight or lantern. I wanted to get an early start hunting in the morning. After I was filled up with some of my good wilderness cooking and was feeling all warm inside, I let the fire burn out as it had gotten dark, and I crawled into my sleeping bag for a good nights sleep. As I drifted off listing to the night sounds and dreams of that monster buck my eyelids finally closed.

All of the sudden I awoke in the middle of the night to some one walking or so I thought. I heard crunch, crunch, crunch, as the leaves gave away to a large person walking through the woods. As I lay there listening, I noticed all around me there was a fog that was so thick you couldn’t see 10 feet in front of yourself. I reached to my watch and pressed the little light to see what time it was. 1:00 in the morning. The sound was still coming closer to my camp, crunch, crunch, crunch! My heart started beating faster as I thought, it is in the middle of the night, I am in the middle of a swamp, the fog is so thick you couldn’t see where you were going even if you had a light. I thought this is no person, maybe a deer, maybe that monster buck! I got excited thinking about it, but then it occurred to me from past hunting you would never hear a deer approaching from that far off and a deer has 4 feet. it would definitely sound different than what I was hearing. I listened again very carefully, Crunch! Crunch! Crunch!, It sounded like a large person walking very slowly through the woods and they could see in the dark, this is crazy. What could this be? My heart was beating faster and louder and the slow large walking sound was coming closer and closer to my camp.

This is where it gets interesting. Finally, I couldn’t lay there any longer as the sound was definitely coming towards my camp to check out who had invaded these woods. I came to my feet, I couldn’t see to the left, the right or directly in front of me the fog was so thick, all I had was my ears. I knew where I had put the bow, it hung directly next to me from that old bayonet and the fury evergreen tree. I grabbed the bow and put an arrow on the string. I stood there and hugged the tree wondering what the moments would bring next.

I listened and sure enough, Crunch! Crunch! Crunch! It approached and suddenly came to a halt about 10 feet in front of me, just far enough that I couldn’t make out an outline. I slowly drew my bow back to a full draw and pointed to the sound. My heart was pounding through my chest, my adrenaline was pumping hard and all of the sudden I heard a loud kind of growl or grunt, three times. It was kind of a cross between a growl and a grunt, very deep and coming directly at me as if whatever was standing in front of me was larger and taller than I was. At that moment I thought to myself as a true mountain man would, as soon as he charges, I’ll let the arrow fly, I’ll grab the bayonet, and I’ll die fighting.

I figure they’ll say he fought a good fight. As I pointed toward the sound he started to circle, Crunch! Crunch! Crunch! I circled with him keeping my bow pointed about chest level and focusing in on the sound. He stopped! Again he let out 3 of those deep growls, (GRRROWL! GRRROWL! GRRROWL!) I held my position, it felt like an eternity, my arms didn’t grow tired as the bow was pulled back the whole time and the adrenaline was pumping. Finally after about 15 minutes he slowly walked off into the swamp.

I eased the draw on my bow and after a few minutes of listening intently I decided to crawl back into my sleeping bag. I didn’t think I would ever be able to go back to sleep again, I held onto the silver cross around my neck and thanked the lord that he had once again watched over me and gave me courage in the face of danger. As I lay there listening, I finally drifted off to sleep and awoke to the sun shining and still alive.

As I hunted that day I thought a lot about what could have approached me in the middle of the night, the dark thick fog, the low large walking, the deep growling grunts. Once I got back to the base and I had told my exploits to a fellow comrade, he said I know what it was he yelled excitedly. He ran and grabbed the newspaper and said right here, read this. As I looked down to see in large print it said BIGFOOT spotted crossing highway last night. I gulped, that is the highway I took to the swamp, could it have been? I like to think so, what do you think?

I went back the following week and camped in the same spot wondering if I might encounter Bigfoot face to face, however much to my disappointment that night was just a peaceful quiet night under the stars.

RMSO asks

Appreciate hearing from you. Did you happen to look for tracks of whatever it was that came up to your camp then circled it?

Pretty compelling a Bigfoot being spotted near the same place during the same time you had your experience.

Mark responds

Yep, I did look and I didn't see anything. At the time I thought it was a bear until I got back to base and my buddy said it was spotted out by one of the highways I took. Wished I would have paid more attention to details back then, at that time I just thought it made for a good story but now I see there are a lot of sightings and that it could have been. Now I keep my ears and eyes open but I'm guessing it will be one of those once in a life time things that happen to you.

RMSO

We tried to find a newspaper article about the bigfoot news story you saw right after your encounter. I know its a long time ago and is difficult to locate them the older they get. Plus they may not have been archived online. If you have a photo of the article or a link please send it to us.

Here is an article I found in January of 1978 near that part of Michigan. I have also found a couple of BFRO reports from around 1978.