Paranormal Investigator Details Bigfoot Activity at Virginia's Slyder Lake

Posted Tuesday, August 18, 2026

By Squatchable.com staff

There's something about a seasoned investigator sharing their raw, unfiltered experiences in the field that always hits different. A recent episode from the Let's Find Out podcast featuring Chadwick Gales, founder of Chestnut Ridge Paranormal, is exactly that kind of listen. Chadwick has spent the last 12 years embedded in the woods of Pennsylvania and West Virginia, and this conversation with host Diego is packed with the kind of moments that make you lean in a little closer. One of the most compelling segments centers around a trip to Switzer Lake in Virginia, an area that has racked up roughly 19 to 20 reported sightings around its shores. Chadwick headed out there with his buddy Dan to camp and investigate. While Dan was call blasting the famous Sierra Sounds, those recordings from Ron Morehead that many researchers consider to be authentic vocalizations, Chadwick stationed himself up on a nearby dirt road to keep watch. That's when things got interesting. He heard something moving through the woods about 10 yards away. It sounded bigger than a deer, but he never saw it run off. He stood there for a solid half hour, scanning the trees, and described the feeling as eerie, like something was watching him. At one point, he thought he caught a glimpse of eye shine, though he admitted it could have been lightning bugs. That kind of ambiguity is honestly what makes these field reports so compelling. You can't always explain it away, but you also can't quite pin it down either. His friend's buddy, who was camping nearby, reported hearing whoops and tree knocks the same night. Tree knocks are one of those behaviors that researchers have documented repeatedly across countless investigations, often interpreted as a form of communication or territorial signaling. When you combine auditory reports like whoops and knocks with the sensation of being watched and possible eye shine, you're looking at a layered encounter that touches on multiple categories of evidence that researchers have been cataloging for decades. Chadwick also shared some background on his work, including an upcoming partnership with his childhood buddy Mark Powns, a self-described computer wizard who's going to help him step up his content game and join investigations. There's also a fascinating side story about investigating the Crawford School of Terror, a three-story building from 1916 that's been converted into a haunted Halloween maze. Chadwick and his team captured some wild audio in the basement, including what sounded like finger snaps echoing through a space that shouldn't have echoed at all. Definitely worth checking out that footage if it gets released. What stands out about Chadwick's approach is his patience and honesty. He doesn't rush to conclusions, and he's transparent about what he doesn't know. That half hour standing on that road, listening, waiting, and not seeing anything but still feeling that presence, that's the kind of fieldwork that doesn't always make headlines but builds the foundation of genuine research. If you're into investigator field reports, Sierra Sounds call blasting, or just love hearing about active hotspots with a long history of sightings, this episode is absolutely worth your time. Head over to YouTube and search for the Let's Find Out episode with Chadwick Gales. Trust me, you'll want to hear this one for yourself.