Monster Quest Creator Doug Hichek Shares His Bigfoot Encounters

If you've ever wondered what kind of experiences shaped one of the most well-known Bigfoot investigators in the country, there's a fascinating interview floating around YouTube right now that you absolutely need to check out. Over on the Backwoods Signal channel, host Daniel sits down with Doug Hichek, the creator and executive producer of the History Channel's MonsterQuest, and the stories Doug shares are nothing short of jaw-dropping. Doug grew up in a household where the unexplained was dinner table conversation. His dad read him Charles Fort bedtime stories, which is honestly the coolest parenting move ever. From a young age, he knew he wanted to be a TV producer, and his fascination with wildlife eventually merged with his curiosity about cryptids in a way that would change his life. The first story he tells is one that will give you chills. Back in the early 1980s, Doug went deer hunting in Minnesota with his uncle, cousins, and best friend. They were spread out on tree stands about a quarter mile apart, sitting in the dark before dawn. While waiting, Doug heard chest beating, not like a grouse, but like a gorilla. Then he got blasted with this horrific stink, like dead rotting animals, that came and went as quickly as it appeared. When the group met up at noon, every single person in the hunting party reported the same thing. Chest beating. Stink. A visit from something. His cousin Mark was the first person Doug had ever heard use the word "Bigfoot" in Minnesota, and the coincidence of all of them having the experience at the same time was, as Doug puts it, pretty amazing. Then there's the story about Randy, likely referring to the well-known researcher Randy, and an experiment they did just for fun. Doug, Randy, his son-in-law, and another guy named Adam were walking around the woods when Doug asked Randy to belt out a tune. Randy, being a good singer, obliged. Nothing happened while he was singing. But when he stopped, they got sprayed with that same putrid stink. They tested it multiple times in different spots, and the same thing kept happening. Whatever was out there didn't seem to like the singing, or maybe it was waiting for the silence. Either way, it's a fascinating little piece of evidence that the stink these creatures produce isn't body odor. It's something else entirely, possibly produced the same way primates produce scent, but who really knows? The third story is the one that might blow your mind the most. Doug was filming a show called North Country up at Selwin Lake in the Northwest Territories, way northeast of the abandoned town of Radium City. They were there to catch big lake trout, but during a pee break on shore, they discovered footprints coming out of the water onto the beach. The prints were deep and detailed, and Doug had his 300-pound buddy stand on a rock and leap off into the pegravel to test whether the soil could even be dented. It couldn't. But the prints were right there, deep and clear. Then came the part that sealed it for Doug. There was a footprint in front of a tree trunk and another directly behind it. That only means one thing. Whatever made those tracks stepped over the tree. The trees up there are stunted, only about seven feet tall and very bendable, but still. The tracks continued off into the tundra as far as the eye could see. Doug filmed everything, had his journalist buddy Rick do a standup, and captured as much as he could. When they got back to Minneapolis, the story aired on a local station as "Mystery of the North," but here's the heartbreaking part. The station recycled all of his original tapes. All of that footage, gone. Doug knew the tracks weren't bear tracks. He was somewhat of a bear expert at the time, and he recognized that they weren't double-step bear prints or polar bear tracks. They were detailed, especially in the sand, and very much resembled the famous Dennis Helfred tracks that researchers have documented over the years. This interview is a must-watch for anyone serious about Sasquatch research. Doug Hichek isn't just some talking head. He's a wildlife filmmaker and researcher who has had firsthand encounters and has the credentials to back up his observations. The fact that his original footage from Selwin Lake was lost to recycling is a tragedy for the research community, but the stories he tells are still powerful pieces of the larger puzzle. Head over to YouTube and search for Backwoods Signal to catch this full conversation. You won't regret it.