Navy Veteran Encounters Two Bigfoot Creatures Fishing Michigan River
Posted Saturday, October 03, 2026
By Squatchable.com staff
There's something about a firsthand account from someone with military background that always hits different. A Navy veteran recently shared his experience from the backwoods of Northern Michigan, and the details are the kind that stick with you long after you finish listening.
The story comes from a retired sailor who spent two tours in Vietnam and now finds solace in the wilderness after losing his wife to cancer three years ago. He's been taking longer solo trips into the remote stretches near the Upper Peninsula, camping, canoeing, and fishing. Last October, he set up camp about 15 miles from the nearest road, near a river he'd visited before. The first few days were peaceful, exactly what he needed. Then on the fourth day, everything changed.
Heading down to refill his canteen, he spotted what he initially thought was a bear near the water's edge. But when it straightened up, he realized it was standing upright like a person, only it wasn't a person. Seven, maybe eight feet tall, covered head to toe in dark brown fur, with shoulders broader than any man he'd ever seen and arms that seemed too long for its body. When their eyes met, the veteran described feeling pure animal fear, the kind he hadn't experienced since Vietnam. The creature took off through the underbrush with a speed that defied its massive size.
That night, the silence around his camp became deafening. Anyone who's spent real time in the woods knows there's always ambient noise, insects, small animals rustling, wind through leaves. When all of that suddenly stops, something is wrong. He lay frozen in his sleeping bag, hand slowly reaching for his rifle, certain he was being watched. Whatever was out there eventually moved on, and dawn couldn't come fast enough.
But instead of packing up and leaving, curiosity got the better of him. He returned to the river the next day, this time with his rifle and a better hiding spot in some thick bushes. What he witnessed over the next hour was extraordinary. Two of them appeared, one dark brown like the one he'd seen before, and another lighter, almost reddish in the sunlight. They moved with purpose along the riverbank, fishing with their bare hands. No nets, no tools, just incredible reflexes that put any human angler to shame. They caught enough fish in minutes to feed a family.
The behavior he described is what really got me. These weren't just creatures following instinct. They communicated with low grunts and hand gestures, almost like a language with rhythm and pattern. At one point, the lighter one found what looked like a piece of metal, maybe part of an old fishing lure, and held it up for the other to examine. They turned it over in their hands, making quiet clicking sounds to each other, before the darker one threw it far downstream, as if they didn't want any trace of human presence in their territory.
Even more fascinating, after they finished fishing, they cleaned up after themselves. Picked up fishbones and scales, smoothed out the mud where they'd been standing, and left the riverbank looking almost untouched. They knew he was there the whole time. The darker one looked directly at his hiding spot and made a low warning sound, but instead of confronting him, they simply gathered their catch and walked back into the forest. Like they decided he wasn't worth worrying about.
When he finally crept down to examine the riverbank, he found footprints 18 to 20 inches long, wider than any human foot, with claw marks at the tips of the toes. His size 11 boot looked like a child's shoe next to them. Broken branches at about eight feet high confirmed the height he'd estimated.
Northern Michigan and the Upper Peninsula have a long history of sightings, and accounts like this one line up with what many researchers have heard over the years. The intelligence, the cleanup behavior, the apparent language, these are recurring themes in credible encounters. What makes this particular story stand out is the observer himself. A Navy veteran with combat experience isn't someone prone to exaggeration or fantasy. He knows what fear feels like, and he knows what he saw.
The full story is worth listening to in its entirety. The way he describes the silence of the forest that night, the deliberate movements of the creatures, and that moment when they acknowledged his presence without aggression, it all adds up to something you don't hear every day. Definitely check it out if you haven't already.