Amit Smith's Bear Skin Coat

Moose writes "When I was around 9 or 10 years old, back in 1989 – 1990 in Jackson Wyoming where I was born and raised. I had a friend who lived down the street from me who got a horse for his birthday. So, I saddled up my horse and we hit the trail.

Back then kids like us could take off for a few days before anyone started worrying. I think I remember that we rode those poor horses all over that country for 3 days. The second and third day we went way up Cache Creek Canyon to see how far we could make it and we got to a little spring where a tree had fallen across the trail and we realized our horses could jump over it so we must have ran them back and forth over that dam thing for an hour until the horses were all lathered up so we decided to unsaddle and let them cool off and we all drank from that spring.

I remember clearly that my horse had his ears pinned forward and would give a little snort now and again, clearly concerned about something off in the timber, but I couldn't see anything. Then I smelled something awful, a rotting flesh mixed with a wet dog smell. The first thing that came to my mind was it must be a dead elk because that canyon is a migration route for elk in the fall and spring so I told my buddy that I was going to go check it out to see if I could acquire some ivory. So, I went up to the base of this cliff that was about 60, maybe 70 foot tall and trees blocked the area between where my friend and the horses were and myself. As I was scanning the area I looked over to my right and this giant black man walked around the base of the cliff.

The evening sun was behind me and the way the shadow played off the base of the cliff I could only see the top half of this man. Now, normally that would be cause for concern I suppose but, in my mind, it was another mountain man who decided to quit civilization and live off the land like in the old days. I had been with my dad and grandpa when we had met other men who would come down to stock up on supplies and then head right back up into the mountains, so I really just thought he was one of them. Yes, he was huge! But again, I was an ignorant little country boy who up to that point never met a black person before and the only thing I did know was what I saw on TV when we would watch the Packers play and I genuinely thought that black folks were bigger and usually better at sports then other folks and I was fascinated by the situation I found myself in and I wanted to meet this guy! LOL.

The man was enormous, with long dreaded black hair and fairly long beard that was silver up the middle of it. He was bald on the very top of his head and I remember that it looked raw or something because he had a big scar running the length of the top of his head and I remember thinking, man that looks like it must have hurt. Another thing I noticed was his head was fairly pointed as well. He was wearing what I thought was a black bear skin coat because it was pitch black hair covering his upper body, but I could see his massive shoulder muscles and biceps moving under the hair. He raised one arm and grabbed a little ledge of the cliff and kind of leaned into it and at that point I realized it wasn't a jacket he was wearing but in fact it was his own hair that thinned around the armpit and along his sternum and under his pecks.

Now like I said I was fascinated and had no feelings of being threatened and I wanted to ask this guy a bunch of questions, so I raised my hand and waved and said "howdy" I'll never forget the look he gave me; it was a look of annoyance. I knew the look well because I was an annoying kid back then. Then I asked, "what yuh doin?" still he did not respond and seamed like was more concerned about something else up the ridge because he would look up the ridge and study it for a bit then back at me and at one point he made a low growl, like I was in the way or something. I don't remember how long the encounter lasted but it seemed to be a couple minutes maybe a little more. I do remember hearing some kind of whoop from off in the distance and he replied by making a sound with his tongue that sounded like a wood nock that we see in almost every bigfoot investigation these days. I had another buddy who could snap his tongue to the roof of his mouth, and it would make the same noise and he could make it really load but this guy's was way more loud, at least that's what I think happened.

Then my buddy called out to me, and he snapped his head over and so did I and when I looked back at him he just pulled himself up the cliff and grabbed another ledge with his other hand and repeated it like 2 more times until he was at the top and disappeared from view. I yelled to my friend "did you see him?!" and as he walked up to me, he asked "who was that?" Later on I tried talking about it with him and he claimed he didn't actually see anything or anyone. I was sure he saw him though.

Anyhow, a couple years later we were taking a pack trip up to a place called Turquoise Lake and I remember I was 12 because that spring my cousin and I were taught how to train our first colts and we rode them on that pack trip. We got up to a covert that crossed the road that had holes in the top and our colts wouldn't cross over it so as the rest of the group went on ahead, we stayed behind trying everything to get them fillies to go over that covert. It took quite awhile to get them over it and we set out to catch up with everyone else and we got to the steepest part of the trail so we took a rest for a awhile before the big climb, so we just sat and talked for a bit. I was on my horse when I realized that I was standing right next to that same cliff and I was right under that little ledge where that man had put his hand on. Let me repeat that, I was on my horse and I still had to raise my arm up to where his hand was.

That was about 10 to 11 feet from the ground. I then proceeded to tell my cousin the story and what I saw but he immediately blew me off saying there was no way I saw a man that tall climb that cliff basically only using his arms. Even then I hadn't thought much about it. It wasn't until 2007 ish when I started getting into bigfoot and I saw that drawing of one that some guy had drawn after he had an encounter. I thought my mind was going to quit me. I scrambled to find a paper and pencil and I went to town frantically drawing and my hands were shaking so bad but when I was done I stepped back and just stared at it. There he was the man I had seen so long ago and all I did was make the creature the other guy drew bald and with a beard and it was exactly what I remembered. Now, say what you will but I still can't bring myself to say I saw a bigfoot, but at the same time I can't explain how that dude was so dam big. Anyway I don't give a rip if you use my name or if you even want to share this. I'm to old to give 2 shits what anyone thinks of me or if anyone hears my story, My buddy just really wanted me to share it with you guys. I've really gotten sucked into your podcast and look forward to binging the whole dam thing.

I attached the drawing of what I remember him looking like."