Bigfoot Enthusiast Shares Multiple Rural Property Encounter Stories

Posted Saturday, June 27, 2026

By Squatchable.com staff

So I stumbled across this video the other day from a YouTube channel called Standing Goats Rescue, and it's part of a series called Cryptid Encounters. The host is out in what sounds like a rural area, dealing with rattlesnakes on his property (which is intense enough on its own), but then he starts reading through some seriously compelling witness reports that I had to share with you all. The first story is titled "The Search Party" and takes place in the Appalachicola National Forest back in February 2017. A local man got lost while scouting a remote area, and 12 family members and volunteers organized a search before authorities even showed up. What happened next is the kind of thing that makes you pause. Multiple searchers started reporting wood knocks coming from different directions. At first they assumed other volunteers were signaling each other, but radio checks confirmed nobody was making those sounds. The knocking kept going all afternoon, always distant, always moving. Then shortly before sunset, several searchers noticed this overwhelming odor. Most of them described it as a mix of wet dog, decaying vegetation, and stagnant swamp water. It hit suddenly and disappeared just as fast. Around dusk, one search team spotted a large dark figure standing among the trees. Others nearby confirmed seeing the same silhouette. Estimates ranged from seven to nine feet tall. The figure just stood there watching. When volunteers approached, it stepped behind a stand of pines and vanished. No footprints, no broken brush, nothing. The lost man was eventually found unharmed about two miles away, but he shared something strange. The night before, he heard something walking around his position after dark. Heavy footsteps, large enough to shake the ground. Whatever it was circled him all night but never entered his camp. Several members of that search party still refuse to talk about what they saw. The second story is called "The Thing in Tate's Hell" and involves three experienced outdoorsmen scouting remote hunting areas in Tate's Hell State Forest in northwest Florida during fall 2020. All three gave separate statements, and the core events matched up remarkably well. Around 5:15 p.m., they reached a remote section of swamp forest miles from any paved road. The wind stopped instantly, not gradually. The forest went completely silent. No birds, no insects, nothing. One witness described it like walking into an empty building. About 20 minutes later, they found footprints crossing a muddy trail. At first glance they looked human, until they noticed the size. Each print measured approximately 17 inches long with an unusually wide stride. They assumed it was a prank. Shortly before sunset, one of the men spotted movement ahead. Something large crossed an opening between two stands of cypress. The sighting lasted less than three seconds, but all three saw it. Upright, broad-shouldered, dark, covered in hair, estimated at over eight and a half feet tall. Then the crashing started. Trees shaking violently, palmetto snapping, heavy impacts echoing through the forest. They compared it to a bulldozer moving through thick vegetation. The sound stopped, silence returned, and the men immediately headed for their truck. The walk took nearly an hour, and throughout that entire time they heard movement paralleling them through the swamp. Always hidden, always keeping pace, never revealing itself. The sound only stopped after they reached their vehicle. Years later, none of them have gone back. What really gets me about stories like these is the pattern. The sudden silence in the forest, the overwhelming odor, the wood knocks, the deliberate escorting behavior. These are consistent themes that show up again and again in credible encounter reports. When experienced outdoorsmen who spend their lives in the woods describe feeling watched or escorted out of an area, that's worth paying attention to. The 17-inch footprints are also consistent with what's been reported in various parts of the country, particularly in the Southeast where there have been longstanding traditions about these beings going back centuries. The host also started reading a third story called "Three Knocks on Forest Road 105" but the video cut off before he got into it. Definitely worth checking out the full episode to hear that one. If you're into well-documented witness accounts with multiple corroborating testimonies, this video is definitely worth your time. The host has a relaxed, conversational style and reads through these reports like case files, which makes them hit even harder.