Two Hikers Share Chilling Bigfoot Encounter Stories

Two hikers, two separate mountains, and two encounters that left both men questioning everything they thought they knew about the forests they wandered through. A video recently popped up on YouTube featuring back-to-back witness accounts that are absolutely worth your time if you haven't seen them yet. The first story comes from Wade Merritt, who decided to spend a fall week in 2023 exploring a remote mountainous region of Oregon he had never visited before. He went solo, preferring the solitude of hiking alone. Everything seemed normal until the second afternoon, when he left the main trail to catch a sunset photo from a small ridge. That's when he spotted something that stopped him in his tracks, a series of footprints pressed into damp soil. They looked human, but far larger than anything he had ever seen. Wade tried to rationalize what he was seeing, but the unease stuck with him as he set up camp for the night near a rocky outcrop. While making dinner, a foul smell drifted through the air, something he described as wet clothes forgotten for weeks mixed with the odor of a soaked animal. He searched for a carcass but found nothing, and eventually the smell faded. Then came the middle of the night. Wade woke to complete darkness and the sound of slow, heavy footsteps circling his tent. The ground seemed to vibrate with each step. The smell returned, stronger than before. He stayed frozen inside his tent for what felt like an eternity before the sounds finally stopped. When morning came, he found deep footprints surrounding his campsite, some just a few yards from where he had slept. They didn't match bear tracks. The shape was far too human. As he packed up and headed down the mountain, he felt watched the entire way. That feeling didn't leave until he finally saw what was following him, a dark figure standing between pine trunks, enormous, covered in tangled dark hair, with impossibly broad shoulders and unnaturally long arms. What makes Wade's account so compelling is the way the creature behaved. It didn't charge. It didn't threaten. It simply watched him with an almost human intensity before turning and walking back into the trees. Years later, Wade still can't explain what he saw, and the footprints, the smell, and the figure all remain connected in his memory as part of the same story. The second account is told by Corbin Reigns, who in October 2022 went on a three-day hiking trip with his cousin Leland through a mountainous region of Northern California. They weren't looking for anything strange, just autumn photography and a break from work. The weirdness started when they ventured off the main trails into a valley marked on an old forest map. What they found there has been documented by researchers over the years in various hotspots, young trees bent near their bases into impossible arches, all leaning in the same direction. This kind of tree bending has been reported across multiple states and is often considered a potential indicator of Sasquatch activity. Whatever forced those trees into position did it slowly and deliberately, and the formation itself feels intentional in a way that's hard to shake. The forest grew uncomfortably quiet as they continued. Birds went silent. Small animals disappeared. Even the wind seemed to avoid that hillside. Then came the smell, the same kind of foul, wet-animal odor Wade described. They reached a clearing just before sunset and discovered something that pushed the encounter into another category entirely. A structure stood at the edge of the clearing, made from thick branches and fallen logs woven together into a rough wall standing over seven feet high. Some of the logs were far too heavy for a single person to move. There were no belongings inside, no signs of campers, nothing that explained its purpose. But it felt used. While they were examining it, Corbin heard a sound behind them, a deep exhale, like air leaving an enormous pair of lungs. About sixty yards away, partially hidden between tree trunks, stood a dark figure. At first he thought it was a bear standing upright, but the proportions were wrong. The shoulders extended unnaturally wide, and the creature was standing fully on two legs. It stepped forward enough for them to see it clearly. Corbin estimated it stood well over eight feet tall, covered in dark hair with brown tones mixed throughout, with arms that seemed far too long for any human being. What struck him most was the way it moved, with a strange confidence and zero clumsiness. It watched them with an intensity that was impossible to ignore, its eyes tracking every movement they made. Neither of them spoke for several seconds. Fear built slowly, like pressure in the chest. They slowly backed away without breaking eye contact, and the creature continued watching. When they reached heavier tree cover, it turned and disappeared into the vegetation with a silence that seemed impossible for something of that size. Both men made it back to their vehicle before dark and drove home in near silence. Years later, Corbin still looks through the photographs he took. The pictures don't show the creature, but they do show the bent trees and the strange structure. Whatever shared that forest with them was intelligent, watched them for several minutes, and chose to remain hidden when it had every opportunity to come closer. These two accounts share several details that researchers have documented time and time again across North America, the overwhelming foul odor, the heavy footsteps that seem to vibrate the ground, the bent trees, the constructed shelters, and the calm, watchful behavior of the creatures themselves. Neither witness experienced aggression. Both described an intelligence behind the eyes that didn't match any known animal. If these stories hit home for you, the full video is worth checking out. Both men tell their experiences in their own words, and there's something about hearing it directly that adds weight to every detail.