Child's 1980 Sasquatch Encounter in Colorado Canyon Was First of Many

So I just stumbled across this fascinating interview over on The Cryptid Creatures Show, and honestly, it stopped me in my tracks. A guy named Greg comes on and starts talking about his very first encounter back in 1980, when he was just 10 years old, and the way he tells it is genuinely captivating. Picture this: a kid roaming around Williams Canyon, just north of Manitou Springs, Colorado. For anyone who doesn't know that area, it's right along Highway 24, west of Colorado Springs. The whole region is steeped in Native American lore, including the legend of ManBearPig, which is actually based on the Manitou Springs spirit that supposedly combined humans, bears, and boars to guard the mineral springs. Pretty wild backdrop for a first encounter, right? Greg was up on a cliffside knocking slate rocks off the edge, just being a kid, when he caught some movement in his peripheral vision. Down below, he spotted a female Sasquatch, thin, not the bulky build you see in the Patterson-Gimlin film, holding what he describes as an infant about a foot and a half tall. Then things got even more interesting. To his right, a sage bush about three feet tall started shaking violently, and Greg being a smart kid who had already watched Legend of Boggy Creek with his dad, knew exactly what was happening. He bolted. His theory? The shaking bush was likely the mother trying to scare him away from the infant, because a male would have just stood up and roared. That kind of behavioral reasoning actually lines up with what researchers like Jane Goodall and Dian Fossey documented in primate studies, where males typically don't engage with infants, but mothers, sisters, and aunts do the caregiving. What makes Greg's story even more compelling is that this wasn't a one-time thing. He mentions having around 10 encounters over the years, with about 80 to 90 percent of them happening in Lane County, Oregon, around the Eugene and Springfield area in the Willamette Valley. That's a hotspot that researchers have been paying attention to for decades. He also had to take a long break from his fieldwork after developing celiac disease, which he partially attributes to the environment in Oregon. During that time away, he visited Cliff Barackman's North American Bigfoot Center and even accidentally left his debit card there, which they kindly returned to him. Small world. The interview itself has some funny technical glitches at the start, with the hosts dealing with microphone feedback and an unexplained echoing noise that nobody could figure out. It adds to the charm, honestly. If you're into long-term witness accounts and the kind of stories that span decades, this one's worth checking out. Greg comes across as genuine, grounded, and clearly passionate about protecting these beings while doing his research. Definitely a must-watch for anyone who loves a good Sasquatch tale.