Bigfoot Encounters: Washington Hiker and North Carolina's PD Booger

So I just came across this video over on the Backwoods Witness YouTube channel, and honestly, it had me hooked from start to finish. It's one of those compilations where the host reads out real witness stories, and let me tell you, the two stories featured here are absolute gold for anyone who follows this stuff. The first story comes from a hiker and bird watcher in Washington State, near Darrington. This person was out on the trail, stopped to retie their boot and grab some water, when they heard something stomping through the brush off to their right. They turned and there it was, plain as day, a Sasquatch standing over seven feet tall with light brown shaggy hair, and they said it smelled like a wet dog. Now here's the part that really got me, instead of panicking, the witness just raised their hand and waved at it. And to their absolute shock, the Sasquatch waved right back before continuing on its way. The witness described the encounter as completely friendly and said they didn't feel scared for a single second. Honestly, friendly wave-back encounters like this are rare and absolutely fascinating. It speaks to the intelligence these beings might possess and the idea that not every encounter has to be terrifying. The second story is where things get really intense. It's titled "The PD Booger" and takes place in a remote area of South Central North Carolina along the great PD River Valley. The storyteller recounts his childhood experiences from around 1980, when he was about 12 years old. His dad lived in a little house along a lonely back road, surrounded by thick forest, hills, creeks, and valleys. He became inseparable friends with two brothers his age, Steve and Heath, and the three of them spent their days exploring those woods, fishing for crappie and bass, building tree stands and forts, and camping out. It sounds like the kind of childhood adventure every kid dreams about, until things got weird. To the northwest of his dad's house, the woods took on an almost spooky feel. The area had been home to the Creek Indians many years prior, with remnants of burial mounds and settlements scattered along the river valley. There was one patch of woods the boys never camped in, and an elderly man always warned them to be careful venturing in there. He claimed the woods were haunted and that folks had been seeing a wild man in there for years. He called it the PD Booger. To three adventurous boys in 1980, that was basically an invitation. They had heard strange sounds before, hoots, grunts, and what we now recognize as tree knocks, but never thought much of it. Then one evening, the storyteller and a friend from school decided to walk up a path they'd never explored before. About a mile in, they got that unmistakable feeling of being watched. They rounded a bend in the path and caught sight of something big running upright down the hill ahead of them. They took off running, and they could hear this thing running down the hill in their direction. They made it back to within sight of the road and stopped to listen, and the creature stopped too. Then they heard it running away. When they told Steve and Heath about it, Steve went up the next day to check things out and found a series of footprints in an exposed clay patch. A few weeks later, the storyteller's dad took him and Steve fishing at a spot not too far from where the footprints had been found. They walked about an eighth of a mile up a footpath and came upon a foul smell in the air. Steve noticed footprints similar to what they'd seen before, only these were 18 inches long and had three toes on each foot. The tracks showed the creature had come down the hill, gone into the water, climbed back out, and walked north along the same path they were on. What happened next is the kind of stuff that gives you chills. They followed the tracks about 400 yards until Steve stopped and said, "Listen, do you hear anything?" The witness said no, and Steve replied, "That's my point. It's dead quiet. It's kind of eerie." All the forest sounds around them went silent. Then they began to hear heavy breathing, crunching leaves, that foul odor again, and a growl that rattled their bones because it was so close. They ran like hell. Steve was so scared he dropped his brand new tackle box with $50 worth of tackle in it. He didn't even stop to grab it. When they made it back to the road, it was almost dark and they could hear Dad calling their names from the other side of the bridge. After a good lecture, they told him what happened. He didn't believe them, but he asked about the tackle box. Knowing Steve's folks would be upset about losing it, Dad grabbed his flashlight and said, "Well, come on. Let's go get it." Reluctantly, the boys followed him back up the trail. As they approached the fishing spot, they showed Dad the footprints. He agreed they were odd but wasn't amused, so they pushed on. Once again, the forest sounds ceased. Dad was getting an uneasy feeling. Then they all smelled that odor. They found the tackle box on the ground, popped open with contents spilled out. While Steve and the witness squatted down to pick everything up and Dad held the flashlight, a low growl came from the trees off to their right. It was real close this time. The witness says for the first time in his life, he saw fear in his dad's eyes. Dad said, "Hurry up, boys. Grab what you can and let's get out of here." They scrambled to scoop up lures, lead sinkers, corks, hooks, leaves, dirt, everything, and walked very fast away. Dad told them not to run because he couldn't keep up, and he didn't want the creature to give chase. He walked behind them, keeping watch. By the time they reached the truck, they heard the creature screaming at them from the other side of the creek. Now here's where it gets even more interesting. The storyteller mentions that his father, now almost 80, told him he went back there alone one day many years later and had his own experience with the same creature. Although he didn't see it, it watched him from the hill above and tossed rocks into the water near him. Imagine that, a grown man being stalked by something that throws rocks at him from a ridge. The storyteller himself, now in his 50s, went back one cool fall night, parked at the boat ramp, and just listened. He was the only one out there. He thought he heard a faint howl way up the creek, so he got up, found a large stick, and started hitting the side of a fence post. It wasn't long before he got three distinct knocks in reply from way off in the distance. He sat there for another hour and heard nothing more. In the following years, he's heard tales from hunters and fishermen about hearing this creature and its lonely cry in the night. One fellow even said he saw it on the riverbank a few miles away while drifting on the water at night fishing. The PD Booger story is a perfect example of why these locations become legendary in Sasquatch research. When multiple witnesses across different generations report encounters in the same area, with similar descriptions of sounds, smells, and behaviors, it builds a compelling case. The three-toed footprints are particularly interesting, as most Sasquatch reports describe five-toed tracks, though there have been occasional reports of three-toed variations in certain regions. The rock-throwing behavior is also well-documented in Sasquatch literature, with many researchers noting that rock throwing is often a territorial or communicative display. If you want to hear these stories told in full, definitely check out the video over on Backwoods Witness. The host does a great job presenting these accounts, and there are more details in the original telling that really paint the picture. Stories like these remind us that there are still wild places out there where something extraordinary might be waiting just beyond the next bend in the trail.