04x05 - Low Tide, High Danger

[bunniefuu]

Previously on
expedition big foot...

Between the wildlife
and the weather,

Alaska is a pretty
dangerous place.

People go missing
around here all the time.

Check this out. Look
at this, it's a jacket.

What the hell?

Whoa! Hey, check that
out, do you see that?

That's not natural at all.

What in... dude, that's skull.

This was all positioned
with a reason,

and I'm not sure that I wanna
know what that reason is.

Hey, Ronny, I'm in position.

I have the motion
detectors set up for IRS.

My god.

Two of the motion
detectors, they just got tripped.

Holy.

What the hell was that?

My god.

I'm still walking down this path

and I can still hear
something paralleling me.

On the northern
side of gray mountain,

mireya believes she's being
stalked by an unidentified creature.

So we just heard what
sounded like whistles

directly behind us.

Hey, mireya, that
motion detector

to your right just
went off again.

I'm going in after it.

Those look like footprints.

Hey, Ronny.

Go for Ronny.

I'm directly across from
where that sensor went off,

and there are a bunch of deep
impressions leading straight up.

Wow, you kidding me?

I'm standing
right in front of it.

Mireya, does it look like

it's one individual or several?

With the, the impressions
that you are seeing.

What I'm looking at

is one large deep impression

after the other
going straight up.

It would look to me
like one individual

digging steps of a ladder.

Copy that.

And whatever made these
tracks is what triggered that light.

It's not here anymore.

I really wanna go up there.

I mean, it's straight shot up.

I think you should
just stay put, let's, let's

maybe head down at first light

'cause we don't know what
we're walking into right now.

There's no way that after finding
these tracks I, I can abandon.

I gotta see what's
on the other side.

Be careful.

I mean, check this out.

Seriously.

Ronny, I just heard a
branch pop, hang on.

Do you hear the whistling?

Listen, listen.

My god.

I wanna kinda watch
this area for a little while.

Three miles north
of Ronny and mireya,

Russel was surveying an
area where he discovered

a series of strange
structures made from logs.

Have you ever seen
anything like that?

But then

a little further out that way

is the stump that came up
and the log that went across.

That doesn't happen by
accident, look how fragile it is.

This space makes every piece of
your body want to turn and run from it.

I want to see if
anything visits this space.

Because whatever put
this structure together,

whatever put these things
in place so meticulously,

I wanna know what did that.

What is that sound?

, you kidding me?

That thing that looks
like skull, a ghost skull,

it's got freaking heat on it.

How did that thing
get heat on it?

It's not natural at all.

How did something
like that generate heat?

It's a piece of wood in
the middle of a forest.

There's something
moving down there.

Inanimate objects like
that don't produce heat.

Few second earlier
this thing was ice cold,

so something must have
touched it without me seeing it.

Right now, I'm hearing
something just down over the hill,

and that's where I need to be.

Whatever that is, I'm
not gonna let it slip away.

This is the strangest
place I've ever been.

I just heard a
branch pop, hang on.

There is a few track,
but nothing recent.

I'm gonna walk this trail

and see where that leads me.

Okay, I'm gonna venture
out a little bit further.

We're clearly in an
area of heavy activity,

and we were seeing lots of
tracks and movement here.

And now I'm hearing
these loud whistles,

and I don't know what
animal is making it or why.

Bigfoot witnesses report
hearing whistles in the woods,

and so it's thought that
bigfoots are actually using this

as a way to communicate
with each other.

At the end of the day we don't
know what we're dealing with,

and just about
every animal out here

is more powerful than we are.

And I'm not hearing
anything anymore.

What the hell was that?

Because the terrain
can't catch an impression.

The tracks ended as soon
as I got up over that hill.

I don't know, but Ronny,

I can see your lights
from where I'm standing,

so I'm gonna start
heading your way.

Okay.

Animals don't just disappear,

but they know how to very
stealthily move and hide,

and one of the big
challenges that we have here

is that there so
many places to hide.

Which means that it's possible

that whatever it was that
evaded us tonight is still here.

- Hey.
- Hey.

Once I got up there, the footprints
just completely disappeared.

I don't know how to follow something
once the footprints disappear.

Every time I'd stop,

a branch would pop

- parallel to me.
- Whoa!

Walked further up and out,

started hearing the whistling.

Whatever it was out here.

I mean, it knew I was there,

'cause it just kept moving, stopping,
moving, stopping, every single time.

The fact that

both of those got
triggered at the same time,

something was on that side

and something was
on the other side.

I mean, that's how
a lot of animals hunt.

We have trail cams set
up all over in this area,

so whatever it was
that evaded us tonight

might show up on one
of those trail cameras.

Let's just keep
listening out tonight

and see if anything comes back.

Let's be as quite as we can.

I wanna go over this hill
and see what we can find.

You ready?

Four miles north,

Russel is tracking an
unknown creature along the river

headed towards the coast.

We're getting into
some space here that

looks like...

Careful.

I've been tracking whatever
left that heat signature

on that log that was
shaped like a ghost skull,

and it has brought
me to this shoreline.

There's so much
going on tonight that,

we're talking some
significant findings.

Where are you?

I'm catching something
right in the center

of that beach over there.

It's upright.

And it's red hot.

What the hell is that?

I've been tracking something

since I left that odd area
where the trees were balanced,

it has brought me all the
way down to the shoreline.

Across the water, on what
looks like a small island,

I see a heat signature,

and I think it knows
we are watching it.

I think it's looking at us
like we're looking at it.

And this isn't the first time.

Just two days into
their expedition...

There is something
moving over there.

Russel spotted
what appeared to be

a bipedal creature
near the coast.

What the hell is that?

Look, look, look, look.

I have to wonder if once
it got to the coastline,

this thing swam across that span
of water just to get away from me.

In the temperatures
of these waters,

there is no way a human
would have done that.

We gotta find our
way over that coastline.

You know so far,

whatever is out here is definitely
doing a great job of eluding us

because we found
some impressive things...

Could here whistles behind me,
and that's them communicating.

And it's terrifying, something
out of a horror movie.

But this has been challenging.

Everything about this
expedition is different.

The extreme weather,
the ever changing terrain.

And the idea is to...

We have to basically
evacuate our base camp.

There's some serious
sign of a bear...

And they have a
very serious concern

for the safety of the
crew and us, for us.

An opportunity for us to
capture with trail cameras

this is a necessary change.

As I was investigating
the work site

where we initially
started our investigation,

I found someone's clothes.

It's a jacket.

And a bag of stuff.

And it was disturbing because

it was just one person's
shoes, pants, keys.

It was as if someone
had just disrobed

and disappeared into the woods.

There are some
researchers who have focused

on this particular subject,

like, this idea that often

the clothes are found,
but the person never is.

For me, personally,

I think of Jeffery and
the story he told me about

his grandfather's
run-in with the kushtaka.

The kushtaka could have
taken over their bodies

and used them for something.

Their clothes were tore
up, they had blood on 'em.

- Their blood?
- No.

Hearing these stories
about how the kushtaka

can get inside somebody's mind

and make them do strange things,

only makes that
connection stronger for me,

because why else would somebody

paradoxically undress in
the middle of the woods,

and traipse off into their
own disappearance?

It doesn't make sense.

We actually turned
them into the authorities

to see if they could track
down who they belong to,

and, see if they were associated

with any missing
persons in the area.

So we're waiting to
hear back from that.

But I have to be honest,
and I have to tell you

the way that I
found those clothes,

and the condition
that they were in,

it's concerning,
to say the least.

You know, there a lot of
missing persons here in Alaska,

and I'm sure that there are
some pretty good explanations

as to what's going on,

but right now I
can't think of one.

I can see one of the trail cams.

I see it.

Let's see if we got anything.

Ronny and mireya are
inspecting a series of trail cameras

to see if they can determine
what left the massive footprints

and produced the loud whistling
sound they heard the night before.

All right, so that's me
coming up to the trail cam.

So we know it was working.

Something left those tracks

and made that
whistling sound last night,

but we don't know what it is.

Do you hear the whistling?

What we do know is that
this area has everything

that a large animal
would need to survive.

Food, shelter, water.

So my hope is that these
cameras will show us

what it was that
made those tracks.

So aside from just now,

something
triggered it six times.

Let's go to five here,
this was at night.

Tree, nothing.

I'm not seeing anything

walking past just yet.

It's really strange because
the only way to trigger this

is if something is standing
right in front of the camera,

but I'm not seeing anything.

It's not even showing the bears
that were near camp last night.

So something set it off,
but we just can't see it.

The sensor is on
top of the camera,

so the first thing that we would
see is whatever triggered it.

We got the tree in focus,
but in the background,

I mean, something could have

popped behind it to trigger it,

but I don't see anything.

The trail camera was set
up high above the ground,

so something is not gonna
just randomly set this thing off.

It just doesn't make any sense.

Let's go check the other ones.

All right, here is the next one.

That was weird.

About two seconds
of something...

- That was strange.
- Large.

It looked like, it also
looked like it had long hair.

First, we have a camera
that registered six hits,

but nothing on the footage.

And then we have something
darting across in front of this camera,

and it shakes as if
something was thrown.

What the?

That was really strange.

What the?

That was weird.

It, like, runs past.

The hair is going this
way, so in that direction.

- And I'm saying...
- Like, it runs past,

- kind of comes in again and moves out.
- -Like this.

We had something that looked like a
creature bipedal, walking in one frame.

The fact that it was high
up above the ground,

I think there's more to explore
and more to be uncovered here.

Look how high we
have this trail cam.

And the trail below
us is pretty low.

- Yeah, I mean, if I'm standing here.
- -So, that...

Even here.

Even here.

- You're still...
- I'm still not

- I mean, the main trail's down here.
- I have to come up here.

I mean that's something high if
it's walking this way or that way.

Yeah.

We see what is
very clearly an animal

moving in and out of frame.

And it definitely
triggered our camera

and we could see
it moving in and out,

but we have no way
of telling what it was.

Those footprints
I found last night,

were only a couple
hundred feet away up that hill.

Maybe this is what made them.

A couple things
pop to mind, right?

A deer could a been coming past,

but animals are always gonna
chose that path of least resistance.

So there's all these

- trails that we're picking up on...
- They're everywhere.

That they're using
over and over,

- so it's sorta unlike that it would...
- Go up.

Climb up to go through here.

- Yeah.
- The other possibility is, of course,

an animal tall enough.

A bear could fit that.

But the hair seemed very

like... like longer.

- Longer, yeah.
- It just seemed different.

All right, let's get this sd
card and send it to Bryce.

Let's go check
those other trail cams.

Let's see if we
get a better shot.

While this video didn't
provide anything conclusive.

It does confirm that there is a large
animal moving through this area.

So I wanna check
out the other trail cams,

and see if we
captured anything there.

- Hey, Ronny?
- Yeah?

Come look at this.

I've been trekking for
a couple hours now,

and everything is comin' straight
toward this little island over here.

Russell has returned
to the shoreline,

where last night he
spotted a heat signature

on the coast of a small island.

Look at this.
Brian, you see this?

Since high tide something has
pushed this rock outta the way.

You see it?

Right here and here.

See how this thing has
been rolled up out of its place?

Something's passed
through here recently.

I saw something across
that shoreline last night.

But we were in the
middle of high tide,

and there's no way to cross that span
of water, I'm just not equipped for that.

Right now, we're at low tide.

That means I have,
roughly, a six hour window

to get across, do my
investigation, and get back,

before that high tide
comes back and cuts me off.

I've reached the shore,
and I'm already seeing

impressions and
tracks all over this area.

This is a little island, there's
no place for this thing to go.

Let's go.

Its so quiet through here.

Unbelievably quiet.

Something's just
been through here.

You see this?

It's been turned up.

That's loose, something
just came right through here.

Yes.

What that is...

This trail is hot.

I'm hearing things moving.

I'm getting tracks,
I'm finding drag marks.

It's undeniable that I am
hot on the trail of something.

I know I have about
roughly six hours

between high tide and low tide.

I need to do as much
moving around as I can.

That black mud bog.

It came right through here.

Here.

Ate that moss right here.

There's no h* of prints.

There's no wolf tracks.

No bear tracks.

But there's a lotta big
impressions in this moss.

And something is being
drug across this forest floor.

Right through there.

This thing is smart.

And it's letting
me stay on its trail,

leaving just enough behind,

to where I will
continue following it.

That thing is on
this island with us.

And it knows I'm behind it.

Hey, Ronny?

- Yeah.
- Come look at this.

This looks like
a really big print.

Wow, that's a
pretty good stride.

Right here.

It step down on that?

It almost looks
like a slide, kind of?

Well, I see it coming this way.

Like, crossing
over from this side.

There would be the heel.

Here you have these
indentations of toes.

Near one of the
triggered trail cameras

the team has discovered
a set of massive footprints.

See if you see any
right around here.

That's a good size.

- But this looks like a really big print.
- Yeah.

Yeah.

Right here?

It step down on that?

Yeah, again, going
in the same direction.

I suddenly look down and I see

that there's this very large
deep impression in the ground.

But better than
that there's two.

Finding two prints,

can give you information
that a single print can't.

For example, stride length,

which can then help
us estimate how tall

the animal was that
made these prints.

Got about 15 and
a half right here.

And if we did the stride from

say heel to heel.

It's about 60 inches.

And it's in a
decent straight line.

That's a good stride.

Measuring the tracks
was eye opening,

which actually showed ratios in
line with what has been reported.

And better yet,
the stride length

was also right on point.

I have the scanner with me.

'Cause you're not
gonna be able to cast it,

so I can scan something
send it back to Bryce?

See if he sees any
details that we can't see?

That's a great idea, yeah.

- Absolutely.
- All right, let me set up.

What's amazing about
having this 3D scanner,

is it is able to extract
details and dimensions,

that are completely
invisible to the naked eye.

This new state of the
art hand held scanner

will create a 3D
model of the footprints.

With its all-in-one
capabilities,

the team is able
to capture the data

and see the results
instantaneously.

They will upload the
data via satellite link,

so it can be shared
and analyzed quickly.

You seeing a lot of detail?

Absolutely, I think Bryce might
be able to do something with this.

Awesome.

Here, come take a look.

Here we go.

Looks like a foot to me.

- Yeah.
- -When you start turning it

you start to see more
definition of the foot.

I see it.

- The heel. You can almost see the...
- Yeah.

- It looks like the big toe.
- Look, right there.

Really looks like a
foot there, doesn't it?

Wow.

That is awesome.

I'm like a kid in a
candy store right now.

Looking at these impressions,
I was kind of doubtful,

but it comes alive.

You could see
the toes, the heel.

This area is extremely active,

and right off the bat,

we're seeing some
evidence of big foot activity.

I'll go ahead and save this,

and then scan the other one.

This area is showing
a lot of activity.

So I think we could set up here.

- And have a great vantage point...
- To watch them with.

- This clearing.
- I like that.

Where we'll be able to see
whatever it is that comes through here.

Love it.

Just a few miles more here.

I'm actually on my way
to reinterview somebody.

Jeff sheakley, who's
a tlingit tribal member,

told me a story

about the time that his grandfather
and uncle were possessed

by the kushtaka.

Their clothes were torn
up, they had blood on 'em.

No recollection
of what happened.

But now he has another story
that he wants to share with me.

It took place at his workplace,

and he didn't tell anyone
because he didn't want it to affect

the relationship
with his employer.

Hey!

- Jeffrey, how's it goin'?
- Good.

But he feels the field
team might be in danger,

and its information that he's
uncomfortable withholding.

Appreciate you taking
the time to talk to me today.

Of course.

So Jeffrey, you said you
had an encounter of your own,

that when we first spoke you
were hesitant to tell me about.

Yeah, I don't talk
about it too much.

So tell me what happened when you
were working out there by the logging site.

Me and a couple coworkers
got tired of driving back and forth,

and we set up a
travel trailer out there.

In the middle of the night

something came along the

the trailer and woke us up.

It sounded like...
Like claw marks.

But not like a bear that would,
like, scratch, it was more...

"Screech" along
the whole trailer.

And that was loud
enough to wake us up.

That sounds terrifying.

And

next thing you know when it
got to the back of the trailer,

and it could hear
us moving around,

it started shaking
the whole trailer.

Where you couldn't even
stand up without holding on.

So something was
shaking the trailer?

- Yeah.
- Did you get a look at what it was?

We ran outside
and there's this tree,

I could see this face

looking at me.

It looked like a... Like
a cross between, like a

like a bear and, like,
an ape or something,

with human features,
more of a flat face.

When I saw it, I

I turned back around
and I closed my eyes.

And I shook my head.

And then I looked again,

and it was gone.

What happened after that, did you guys...
did you guys hightail it out of there?

We all went back...
Tried to go back to sleep

after it left and

not even five or
ten minutes later.

I heard a

baby crying in the woods.

A crying baby?

My gut told me to

"don't go towards it,
just... time to go home."

This isn't the first story I've heard
about cries, coming from a baby

or a woman
screaming in the woods.

And legend has it that
its big foot and kushtaka

who use these methods
to lure in unsuspecting prey.

We hooked up the
trailer and drove off.

And that was it,
you didn't go back?

And that was it,
I didn't go back.

I didn't know what it was.

The only thing I think of is
it was big foot or kushtaka.

We're out in an area
nobody's been in in 20 years.

And here we come
with this little tin box,

it probably didn't
know what we were.

Would you be willing to share with
me the location of where this happened?

It's about 20 miles away.

Gotcha, so not far at all.

This is a pattern we've
seen play out multiple times

with witnesses here in Alaska.

- Thank you.
- Thank you.

But it leaves me
asking more questions,

why are the big foot more aggressive
here on prince of wales island?

Could this place hold
some special significance?

There's a lotta signs
through here of somethin'.

And I'm willing to be
that would be bear.

I mean this right here, I
mean... bears are gonna

tear up and... and dig for whatever
food of opportunity they can.

That's really not
what we're here for.

I don't need proof
that bears exist.

Russell continues to explore
a small island off the coast,

hoping to find the
mysterious animal

he spotted on the
shore late last night.

Man.

Brian, it's gettin' late.

I've been trackin' all day long,

and my trail has gone cold.

And it looks like
daylight is fading.

And I knew I only had about a six
hour window, roughly a six hour window.

So I need to make my way back to the
coastline and get back across that span.

We're not really
prepared to stay the night,

but if we can't
get there in time,

we can handle
just about anything.

Dude, we're cuttin' it close.

We're cuttin' it close.

Watch your step.

Brian, look.

This is high tide.

And Bryce said we had six hours?

We didn't have six hours.

There's no way we're
gettin' across there.

We're stuck here.

We're gonna be here tonight.

We gotta figure out... We
have to get some shelter,

a place we can bed
down for the night.

What do you have
for supplies, 'cause

all I have is a little
bit of extra gear.

Okay, so, I got a little bit
of water, let's... let's just

make that last us.

I can't believe I
missed our window.

That's my fault.

Hey, meriya?

Yeah!

Check this out.

Bryce sent us
some new toys here.

Six miles south, after discovering
a massive set of footprints,

and having their bear
safety team clear the location,

Ronny and mireya have set
up a temporary base camp

to investigate the
surrounding area.

What do you got?

Basically, eavesdropping
equipment, surveillance tech.

And we can place these

in different positions,
and monitor for sound.

Okay.

Yeah, the beautiful thing with
this laptop is if we get any hits

between the two
different signals,

we can record and then we
can analyze those sounds after.

Developed for us in law
enforcement and covert surveillance,

these high-powered,
long-range microphones

are motion and sound activated.

When triggered,
they begin recording

and will transmit
the files to a receiver.

I like that we're not limited
too much by distance.

The fact that we can really
head deep into the woods,

- and just let things roam as they will?
- Absolutely, yeah.

And we'll be able
to pick up on it?

That's really great.

The cool thing with this too, is, like,
if I can get this up on top of that hill,

we can get animals that are
coming up, not even know we're here.

Let's set up the two zones.

On that side, we
had that footprint,

so we can set that up over
there, and then up on the hill.

So that way we have
both of these areas covered

where we know we had activity.

The fact that we have two sets of
these high-powered microphones,

we can place one on
one side of the camp,

and another on the other side.

And we can tune in and determine
which side that sound is coming from.

So I can see base camp

down below, directly there.

We're at a very good,
high vantage point.

There's a big trail that's
running up this way.

Just wanna see if I can
connect to it over here.

This could be
a cool little spot.

We wanna blanket
this entire hillside,

so anything that's
coming up over,

we'll be able to
hear before we see it.

So I got this double-stick tape.

The idea is to stick 'em on

the bark of the tree that
way they're up a little bit.

And unlike using a single
mic, we can use the entire array,

and that will help us triangulate
where the noise is coming from.

This smooth one might
be good for the tape.

And it's just along
this really wide trail

which seems to be pretty used,

and it leads right down
to the water source.

Difficult to pick
up on tracks here.

I'm gonna place this one here.

Big stump right here.

And that's a nice
trail comin' up.

Perfect for the last one.

Okay.

We'll see if we can
capture anything comin' up.

We gotta get some rest.

After missing his
chance to leave the island

Russell has begun
to search for a location

to take up shelter
until the tide recedes.

We know that we're gonna be
here for quite a few more hours.

We're gonna take
advantage of this.

We're gonna spend more time dissecting
everything we can on this island,

and following all those clues.

What is this?

Look at this.

That's fresh.

Brian, something
moved here just recently.

Came right through here.

Stop, stop, stop, stop, stop.

Did you hear that?

It's a bone.

Something has been feeding here.

We keep having activity
going through here.

There's a small water
source over there.

Do you see inside the water?

These are footprints.

And this was recent.

Holy.

This small tree
has been pulled up,

and literally
jammed in the ground

in the center of this water.

I'm wondering

is that some kind of a message
or a symbol or a marking.

Something that is ripped from
the earth, and turned upside down,

doesn't feel like a welcome.

It's like it's
marking its space.

Make no mistake of it

we are trapped on this island

with something, I
don't know what it is.

So, we'll check on it.

Zone a, over by the river.

Ronny and meriya
have finished placing

the motion-activated
surveillance microphones,

and have begun
monitoring the recordings.

Right, I guess my question is is we
had a very distinct other tone there...

Signal, yeah.

There it is.

One of the biggest
misconceptions

is that you go out
on an expedition

and you walk out into the forest and
suddenly things will start happening.

As soon as it
started, it stopped.

Animals survive out
here by being reclusive.

So it's very rare that
things happen quickly.

And even though we have
this tech, this audio surveillance,

waiting for those
nocturnal animals

can take a very long time.

That one's not
giving us anything.

Go back to where we
heard the other one.

And hopefully we'll be able
to pick something up again.

It looks like something's
happening here.

Weird.

Holy.

Something' howling.

Something's howling up the hill.

Something's howling up the hill.

My god.