Former NSA Agent Father Encounters 9-Foot Bigfoot in California

A recent podcast episode dropped that had me completely hooked from the first few minutes. Ryan Singer sat down with Derek Condit, and let me tell you, this conversation is gold for anyone who follows Sasquatch research on the West Coast. Derek runs a place called Bigfoot's Gems in Mount Vernon, Washington, right off the I-5 corridor. If you've ever road-tripped through the Pacific Northwest looking for Sasquatch hotspots, this spot needs to be on your list. He's got a custom pair of three-foot Bigfoot feet that visitors can actually stand in and snap a selfie with. How fun is that? But beyond the awesome storefront, Derek is the real deal when it comes to research. He's authored an entire series of books called the Triangle series, covering everything from the Scadget Triangle in northern Washington to Seattle, Oregon, California, and Alaska. These aren't your typical dry research compilations either. Derek weaves the stories together in a narrative format, pulling from Project Blue Book archives, UFO sightings, and of course, generational Sasquatch encounters. The books practically wrote themselves, he says, because the paranormal history along the West Coast is so rich. Now here's where things get really interesting. Derek comes from a family of witnesses. His father, an 87-year-old retired Marine and former NSA agent living in Fort Jones, California, had his own encounter that he kept quiet for two whole years before telling his son. Imagine that. A man with that kind of background, someone who's seen things most of us can't even imagine, and he was so shaken by what he saw that he couldn't even process it. The story goes like this. Derek's dad owns 44 acres of old logging land in Northern California. He's out walking his property one day, eyes to the ground because, like Derek, he's a gold prospector and rock hound. Always looking for that next shiny nugget. He rounds a bend on the trail and looks up to find himself face-to-face with a Sasquatch standing about 100 feet away. The creature was just munching on berries from a bush, completely unaware it had company until the old man accidentally snuck up on it. What happened next is the kind of moment researchers dream about. They locked eyes and stood there staring at each other for a full minute. Derek's dad described the figure as roughly nine feet tall, covered in hair, and shaped like a man. He didn't even know the term "Bigfoot" at the time. He just kept saying it looked human but couldn't possibly be human. It took Derek explaining the Sasquatch phenomenon to his father before the older man could finally put a name to what he witnessed. This kind of generational reporting is incredibly valuable to the research community. When a witness has zero prior knowledge of Sasquatch and still describes the same characteristics that thousands of others have reported over the decades, that carries serious weight. The fact that Derek's father had no cultural reference point for Bigfoot and still recognized the encounter as something profoundly otherworldly speaks volumes. Derek himself has had multiple encounters, which he hints at during the conversation. Combined with his background as a retired Washington State correctional officer at a century-old prison, his work as a hypnotherapist, and his abilities as a psychic medium, he brings a unique perspective to Sasquatch research that you don't often find. The Triangle book series sounds like a must-read for anyone serious about West Coast paranormal history. Derek covers everything from Sasquatch hotspots to UFO activity, tying together threads that most researchers keep separate. His approach of treating these phenomena as interconnected rather than isolated events is refreshing and honestly long overdue. If you want to hear the full conversation, including Derek's own encounters and more about how his father's story eventually came to light, definitely check out the episode. It's the kind of interview that reminds you why this subject continues to captivate researchers and witnesses alike. The West Coast has always been a hotbed for Sasquatch activity, and stories like Derek's family encounters add another layer to the ever-growing body of evidence.