ROCKINGHAM — A pair of sasquatches stalked the banks of Hinson Lake on Saturday, welcoming visitors to the Rotary Lodge for the inaugural EncounterShare.
The event, a prelude to EncounterQuest, served as a town hall-type meeting for individuals from across the region to share their experiences with cryptids, UFOs and other paranormal phenomena.
The meeting was facilitated by Squatch Watchers, a group of Bigfoot hunters based in the western part of the state who document their own encounters on their YouTube channel.
Most of those in the crowd said they were believers in the elusive beast, which has reportedly been sighted in every state in the continental U.S. and across Canada. There are also reports of similar cryptids across the world including the yeti in the Himalayas, the yowie in Australia and the alma in Russia.
Click here to read more about Bigfoot and other cryptids.
Several sitting on the front row said their former pastor had told of a sighting in nearby Whispering Pines. The Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization has no documented encounters listed for Moore County.
However, neighboring Montgomery County boasts 15 sightings — the most of any county in North Carolina.
One man in the audience told of his sasquatch sighting while working at a landfill in the San Luis Valley of Colorado — an apparent hotspot for a variety of paranormal activity including not only encounters with cryptids, but also ghosts, UFOs and cattle mutilations.
According to the witness, the Bigfoot was standing about 10-15 feet away and had “beautiful, clean … gorgeous hair” that was reddish-brown in color. He said that he didn’t detect the foul odor that’s usually reported in close-up sightings.
That encounter, he said, lasted about 15 seconds and when he looked around, the sasquatch was gone. There were no tracks, he added.
Another man said he was skeptical of the existence of the creature because definite proof hasn’t been found, despite modern technology.
“You’re going to feel a sasquatch before you see it,” said Squatch Watcher David Martin.
Martin and the other Squatch Watchers talked about their experiences in the South Mountains State Park area.
Martin also explained that the group is Biblical based and suggests that cryptids could be fallen angels or their nephilim offspring that have the ability to walk between the physical and spiritual realms — making them interdimensional beings, which could explain the lack of physical evidence and how they seem to disappear.
EncounterQuest co-founder Jessica Mora also shared her encounter in the Shenandoah National Park in northern Virginia.
While hiking alone, Mora said she came across tree structures, which she initially passed off as being man-made. One day, after sitting inside one of the structures, Mora said she was leaving when she noticed a few trees that appeared to have been pushed down and heard a noise she described as sounding like “if a horse could growl.”
Mora said she didn’t realize what had happened until several years later when she heard about other encounters on podcasts.
The conversations switched about midway through the town hall from cryptids to more supernatural encounters, with Mora and her brother, Jeff, talking about their experiences with the spiritual realm.
EncounterQuest is scheduled for April 13, 2024 at Cole Auditorium with several guest speakers lined up:
- Lyle Blackburn – an author and musician who has written several cryptid-related books, including one one the Lizardman of Bishopville, South Carolina.
- Ken Gerhard – a cryptozoologist who has searched for evidence of Bigfoot and other cryptids, written several books, and appeared on multiple television shows including “Monsterquest” and “Missing in Alaska.”
- Dr. Jeff Meldrum – a professor of Anatomy and Anthropology at Idaho State University who has studied and has a collection of casts of suspected sasquatch footprints.
- Lt. Cmdr. Alex Dietrich – a retired Navy fighter pilot involved in the 2004 “tic tac” unidentified aerial phenomenon encounter during a training mission.
- Ohio Night Stalkers, Mike Feltner and Mike Miller – researchers who captured audio of a suspected Bigfoot in Adams County, Ohio in 2014.
The inaugural EncounterQuest, held this past April, featured the Squatch Watchers, Kenny Irish, hosts of the Cryptids of the Corn podcast, alien hunter Derel Sims, and adventurer Ron Morehead.
Click here to read about the first EncounterQuest.
