[narrator] Previously on Expedition Bigfoot.
[Russell] Whoa.
Something charged me to the forest.
Charged at you?
[Russell] Look at that. It's a lake.
Everything around this lake screams Bigfoot habitat.
The objective for both of you
is to try to draw this thing down
into the open area of the lake.
[Mireya] Oh, my God, it's huge.
There are multiple huge
heat signatures in front of me.
Holy [bleep].
There's only one thing I know that throws rocks
in the middle of the woods, and that's Bigfoot.
[Mireya] Ronny, look at this.
[Ronny] This is a tree structure
right next to our camp.
[Mireya] What the hell is that?
[Ronny] It's huge.
It's watching us.
[owl cooing]
[Mireya] Oh, my God.
What the hell is that?
[Ronny] That looks big.
It's huge.
What the [bleep]?
[narrator] While investigating mysterious sounds,
Dr. Mireya Mayor and researcher Ronny LeBlanc
have just spotted what appears
to be a huge creature
on a ridge above them.
[Mireya] What the hell is that?
[Ronny] It looks vertical.
It looks huge.
And without us knowing how far away,
it is very hard to determine the size of it,
but it looks enormous and it's not moving.
It looks like it's just standing,
staring at us.
What else would be out there in the middle of the woods
registering right now?
[Mireya] I don't know.
Did you just hear that?
It sounded like a wood knock.
Coming from where?
[Mireya] Yeah, I'm gonna scan the whole area.
- [Ronny] You got it? - I'm not seeing anything.
[Ronny] Go back. Go back.
[Mireya] I don't see it anymore.
I think it's gone.
[bleep]
So weird.
[Mireya] Wait, what is that?
I got something.
[Ronny] What do you got?
It's just rocks.
It's definitely not what we were looking at.
[bleep] we need to look for Russ.
[Ronny] Okay. Let's go.
- [Mireya] Hey. - Hey. Holy smokes.
Are you guys hearing all the sounds?
- [Ronny] Yeah. - It feels like,
once I get up on the top here,
something was behind all three of us,
coming up behind us. What did you get?
We got a heat signature up the hill.
- [Ronny] Huge. - A huge heat signature.
It was just like standing.
Did it move at all, or did it just stay still?
No, it just stayed still.
[Ronny] It looks like it's freaking this big.
We tried to get a better look.
- We couldn't get it again. - But then lost it.
Gone.
Shh, guys, did you hear that?
I heard something right by the water.
[Ronny] Yeah, look at that.
[Russell] All right. Let's go.
- [Ronny] Mireya. - [Mireya] Yeah?
[Ronny] Those strangers, they'll be ending up
right back here in the water's edge?
Yeah, it seems to be the spot.
I mean, water also are magnet for animals.
Do you smell that?
It smells really gamey right here.
It looks like something came through here.
[Ronny] Yeah.
This whole area's padded down.
[Russell] We spent some good bit of time
looking for tracks close to the water's edge
and around, and nothing came up.
The voice feels like it's a couple steps ahead.
And so far,
it's outmaneuvering us.
[Mireya] I think this trail just got cold.
[dramatic music playing]
It's crazy that even during the daytime
this place just feels like a maze.
It's just so easy to get lost in here.
[narrator] The team has set out into the light of day
to search for clues that may explain
what they encountered the night before.
It so quiet in here.
[narrator] They've divided their search areas.
Russell will explore the ridgeline
where the heat signature was spotted.
Mireya, the dense forest, just east of the lake.
And Ronny, the area surrounding
the possible Bigfoot tree structure.
This is where I heard
the sound emanating from something walking,
breaking branches and popping.
It does dip down pretty good,
so the path of least resistance
is what they're gonna use.
All of the trees have these limbs that stick out
and it's pretty likely that anything big moving
by here is going to brush up against one of these,
and that's one way in which we may be able to collect
a hair sample or some trace evidence.
If you look right down here in front of me,
see the trees on both sides of this path,
the branches are all knocked off.
This has been used by something through here.
Hold on a second.
Do you smell that?
[Ronny] There is something really interesting here.
I don't know if you can see this, but there's a deep
impression right here.
It looks like a freaking footprint, man.
This is where I was hearing
something walking and breaking.
We might have something here.
[Russell] Look at this.
There's a rock and it wasn't secure,
so something passing through here
knocked that rock down.
So from right here where I'm sitting,
if I was on this upper ridge behind me,
without thermal, could have very well have come from...
If I was aware of Mireya,
all I'd have to do is come down here
on the other side and wait it out.
And I smell something nasty.
[Ronny] And it goes down a good over three inches,
so that's something heavy.
Whatever made these impressions was really big.
And look at here, this is broken off,
definitely looks like something has been traveling
through here quite often.
It's a straight line, so it looks like
these prints are coming down the ravine,
away from the lake heading towards a ridgeline above me.
[Russell] Look at this,
this was done in the last night
because the leaves here that are broken off
are still green but they're dry.
Something big stepped right here,
something's been through here last night,
there's no question in my mind.
Hey, guys, I came down up the hillside.
I found a couple significant spots
where the earth has been moved
by something large with a big print
and they're lined with exactly what you saw
on that thermal.
Could it have been something like,
uh, a bear or a hiker?
[Russell] It could've been either one of those two,
but the odds of a hiker being in this area,
pretty remote, possibly a bear,
but it does line up with where you saw that thermal
and where I am on this side.
[Ronny] I found something interesting on my side here.
Three to four footprints, deep impressions
going down the slope
of this embankment
and up towards where you found your prints.
All right. I'm gonna head to, uh, Russell's point.
Ronny, you wanna meet us there?
Yeah. I'm on my way.
[Mireya] See you there.
[narrator] The team regroups on top of the ridge.
[Ronny] Hey, guys.
- [Russell] Hey. - [Mireya] Hey.
[Russell] I think it knows that we're here.
I think our element of surprise is gone.
And I think that it's exiting the area.
It looks like it's leaving out to this valley.
How about the two of you stay on this trail
and follow out to the valley and stay low?
And what I'd like to do
is get back up on the high point
and work my way above you.
- [Ronny] Okay. - Separate and divide
- and cover more ground. - All right.
- Sounds like a plan. - [Ronny] We'll get rocking.
[Russell] The plan moving forward is
Ronny and Mireya will stay down
in this lower level where the water is.
I'm sticking to this high ground.
I know beyond a shadow of a doubt
that something came through over this ridgeline.
It's a gamble, but I think at this point
it's definitely worth it.
[Mireya] When you're in an area that feels
like you're getting a lot of activity,
there's a risk to leaving it,
but if you don't follow that next lead,
there's a good chance that whatever it was
could just slip through your fingertips.
In order to make a discovery,
you have to be able to take risks.
If there is a Bigfoot out here,
I'm determined to find it.
[Bryce] Man, wow.
[narrator] At the command center,
Bryce Johnson is analyzing a new threat
to the investigation.
[Bryce] I'm constantly tracking the weather
and conditions that the team is working in,
and we're in the midst of unprecedented forest fires
taking place throughout the Pacific Northwest.
After that dry winter, the entire peninsula's
like a tinderbox, so the situation
is not ideal to say the least.
But the good news is, where we are right now,
we're not in any imminent danger
but it's something I'm gonna wanna keep
my eyes on for sure.
That being said, time is really of the essence.
So I set up Ronny and Mireya with some skiff
so that they can traverse the waterways
and just cover more ground faster.
[dramatic music playing]
[Mireya] Bryce said he was dropping the stuff off
right around here.
[Ronny] I see something over here.
[narrator] Ronny and Mireya are making their way
to a rendezvous point where Bryce has arranged
for valuable supplies to be dropped.
Hmm. He said that he was dropping off something
that helped expedite through the river, so...
Oh, wow. All right.
[Ronny] Like a little inflatable kayak.
Very cool.
- This is great. - [Ronny] Yeah.
- [Mireya] So this is the pump. - [Ronny] Oh, very cool.
I'm really excited that we're actually back on the river
because we know that Bigfoot is using these waterways
for food, for hunting,
and we've had so much activity since we've been here
along these waterways,
so I'm super stoked that we're gonna have
some inflatable boats for us to actually
cover so much more ground than we could on foot.
It's gonna allow us to access areas where the water's
really shallow and get to access points
that we probably wouldn't be able to get to on the land.
[Mireya] One of the reasons that this is such
a good strategy is that when we go into the forest,
- we're making a lot of noise. - [Ronny] Right.
[Mireya] And by the time that we get to a place
where an animal's been, it's heard us.
With this, it's sort of, uh, a sneak approach
where we hear them first.
So I think this is gonna be really useful.
Yeah, I love this.
[Mireya] So let's set this up now
and then get on our way.
- Yup. - [machine whirring]
[Mireya] On my very first expedition in Guyana,
I went to one of the most remote
and unexplored regions of the Amazon.
And the primate that I was in search of
had never been studied.
They were very difficult to find.
What I did on that expedition was actually live out
of a dugout canoe for several months.
This proved to be incredibly successful.
Having the advantage of being on a waterway
where you can be very stealth in your approach
gives us a much better chance of seeing them
before they have a chance to flee.
All right, Ronny,
let's see what's out there.
[Russell] And you can really smell the smoke now.
Holy cow.
That's getting bad.
Look how thick this stuff is.
Those forest fires are getting closer.
I got to keep moving.
[narrator] While Ronny and Mireya
searched the lower waterways,
Russell is working his way southwest
along the ridgeline.
[Russell] Hey, check this out.
It's like an old logging road now.
It's all grown over but...
it's a lot quieter than what we're traveling.
I think I'm gonna follow this road up this way
kind of get the lay of the land here.
Oh, and it opens up out here.
Oh, look at this.
Wow.
Look at this whole bridge.
That's crazy.
[ominous music playing]
[Russell] I thought it was a logging road.
Look at that. It's a railroad trestle.
It looks like it opens up
on both sides of this thing.
Let's go have a look.
[cameraman speaking]
[Russell] Holy crap.
Look how deteriorated, how much the termites
have just eaten away this wood.
I'm trying to walk on top of the wood
that's right on top of the steel.
A little sketchy for me to be walking across it.
Holy smokes.
Look at that.
Nice creek that rests out on the bottom of this thing.
This is great.
Even though this thing is deteriorating,
being eaten away by the termites,
and the steel underneath is rusted and twisted,
you take advantage of a situation like this.
I was able to look up and down this creek
way down in the bottom and get a perspective.
With the smoke,
the animals are definitely gonna migrate
towards the water towards that low lying area
where everything is cool and damp.
It seems like every time I get close to the water,
I get a lot of activity.
You have to have water to survive out here.
I'm gonna go down the other side.
I wanna work my way down on that creek bed.
[woods creaking]
[Russell] Holy cow.
Look at this place.
This is unreal.
All the stuff is literally straight down.
And in our time, we find a new way
to get down to this water safely.
Looking at these banks, it's cliff,
it's moss, and it's muddy and slick,
and it was a dead end.
If I can find a way to dock off the side
of this hill and get to that point,
I think I'm gonna get a lot more answers down there.
Can you see around that corner?
It looks like it goes up.
Does it open up anymore over there?
[cameraman speaking]
[Russell] God, holy [bleep]
- [cameraman speaking] - [Russell] What did you see?
- [cameraman speaking] - [Russell] Was it on the bank?
- [cameraman speaking] - [Russell] What color was it?
[cameraman speaking]
Did it look it was upright? Did it look like a bear?
What's the catch?
[cameraman speaking]
Right on this bank right here?
[cameraman speaking]
Zack, I need to get off this trestle.
How can we get down?
[intense music playing]
Can you see around that corner?
It looks like it goes up. Does it open up anymore over there?
[cameraman speaking]
[Russell] God, holy [bleep].
Zack, what did you see?
[cameraman speaking]
Zack, I need to get off this trestle.
How can we get down?
[narrator] Russell Acord and his cameraman
have spotted a massive creature
just several hundred feet below.
[Russell] Coming down this trail,
we've come across this trestle.
Cameraman sees something heading down the water
and it's big, daylight straight and fast.
If I can get down there and get on that trail,
I need to get on that trail quick
before I lose that creature.
I need you to stay up here on the top
and be my eyes up here.
I'm gonna grab my radio.
I knew that if I can get down on the bottom there,
I can be right where you saw it.
[cameraman speaking]
Well, the choice we have, you saw these ledges.
We can't get through that stuff.
Nighttime's coming, we have to act on this
or we're gonna lose our window.
Either way,
I can't walk away from this.
[intense music playing]
[Mireya speaking]
[narrator] One mile to the west,
Ronny and Mireya are continuing
their search of the waterways.
[Mireya] So it's been a few hours,
Ronny and I are going down river
and we hear the strangest sound in the distance.
[Mireya speaking]
[Mireya] Can we take a look at that?
[Ronny] Sure.
[upbeat music playing]
[Russell] Come on, let's go.
I'm losing light fast.
I know that's not the most safe thing to do,
I know it's dangerous,
but I've got to go over this trestle,
get to the creek bottom, and stay on this trail.
- I'm going over. - [Zack] Okay.
[Russell] The answers that I've been looking for
for 40 years could be right below us,
and I'm gonna find it.
[intense music playing]
[Russell] There we go.
[intense music playing]
[Russell] Holy crap, this place is creepy.
[Russell speaking]
There's something moving out in front of me.
There's something on that bank.
[bleep]
Oh, what is that?
Something's in that water.
Every hair on my arm is straight up right now.
Something just moved through here.
No way.
Oh my,
look at this.
[bleep]
Look at that.
That. That's a footprint.
There's a heel all the way to the toes.
Oh, my God.
[Russell speaking]
[Russell] Look at these tracks.
Oh, it goes into the water,
right into the water.
Zack, Zack.
I've got some tracks down here.
I've got legit tracks right here.
[Rusell] Every hair on my arm is straight up right now.
Something just moved through here.
Oh, my, look at this.
Holy [bleep] look at that.
That is a footprint.
[narrator] Russell Acord has just discovered
what appears to be large human-like footprints.
[Russell] Wow, look at this.
Do you see that?
Holy [bleep]
Look at the size of that.
That's a really big print.
It's like the heel hit the ground
and it rolled off one of these toes.
That's insane.
Oh, look, there's another big one.
There's a set.
Zack, there's bigger tracks.
What I found on that sandbar
are footprints 18 inches long.
What else would make a footprint like that?
I've not seen humans for days.
It's out of place.
It does not belong here in this space.
This is like the gold standard of what you hope to find
in your research.
I would like to get
Ronny and Mireya to scan this.
That combined with the smaller prints
in the mud down below.
We have to bring them in.
- Russell, Mireya. - Hey, Russell.
Mireya, I have something here
that I need to bring you in on.
I found not just a print
but a series of footprints.
[Mireya] Oh [bleep]
Okay, we're pretty far down river though.
Send us your coordinates and we'll be there first thing
- tomorrow morning. - Roger that.
[dramatic music playing]
- [Mireya] Hey, Russ. - [Russell] Hey.
[Ronny] What do you got?
[Russell] What I wanna show you
is just up above me here.
[Mireya] Okay.
[Russell] What I found up here is...
amazing and we have a significant find
that I need you guys to have a look at.
[Russell] Here's where it gets really strange.
Tell me what you see in front of me.
[Mireya] Oh, my God.
[Russell] These are fresh from last night.
- [Ronny] Whoa. - [Russell] If you look
in the water behind it, there's... It looks like
an impression in the water back here.
[Ronny] Ooh.
This thing literally appears
to have come out of the water and onto this bank.
- These toes are crystal clear. - [Ronny] Oh, my God.
[Russell] Look at where we are right now.
What are the odds
of somebody walking through here
- with bare feet? - [Ronny] Right.
[Russell] And look just above it.
Right here was the showstopper.
Now look how big this thing is.
It's a little hard to make out,
but the details are there.
- [Ronny] Holy crap. - [Russell] Look how long
- that thing is. - [Ronny] That is big.
And these are going?
[Russell] It appears to be going
straight towards the water.
That's a big stride.
This entire expedition,
we always felt like we were a few steps behind.
Looking at these prints just proves
to all of us that we are on the right path,
and we are in a hot spot
that we've been looking for all along.
[Mireya] Come on. Let's measure.
[Russell] Yeah, we'll measure.
[Mireya] Nearly 16.
- Sixteen inches. - Wow.
Yeah, that's definitely worth taking a closer look.
Do you see behind me right here on this back side?
There's a trail that comes out of this thick.
- [Ronny] Oh, yeah. - And it goes up
that embankment. It was dark last night
when I came across these,
I did not go up in here and do any more investigating.
Footprints have a way of telling a story.
So I think that this was a really good find.
A single impression in the woods
could be really deceiving,
but the fact that there were multiple prints
that verify each other, they're of the same size,
of the same width, there's consistency in them,
and more importantly, there's a stride distance
between the two that really makes me think
we might be on to something.
Sixty-two inches.
- Just over five feet. - Just over five feet.
That's a pretty good stride, yeah.
[Mireya] The fact that we have a right foot
and a left foot leads me to believe
that whatever made these prints
was walking upright.
All right. So here's the game plan then,
- I really want to scan this. - Perfect.
[Mireya] And you haven't touched it, right, Russ?
No. Absolutely not.
So I can collect an eDNA sample.
- Perfect. - And we should figure out
where this thing either went or where it was coming from.
[Russell] Okay. Once you get done with that
and you give me they're all clear,
- I want to cast this thing. - All right.
- Let's get started. - Yeah.
[Ronny] This is incredible.
There's a good chance
we're going to see dermal ridges on this thing.
There's a good chance that Mireya is going to pull
some DNA from the footprint.
I feel like a kid in the candy store right now.
- This is awesome. - [Mireya] It's amazing
how you can now pack a piece of tech
like this in your backpack
and be able to implement it in the field,
and this is something that gives us such an edge
because here we have a print
that will very quickly disintegrate
with the weather conditions.
[narrator] The scanner will create an extremely precise
three-dimensional model of the footprint.
It has a possible scan accuracy of .04 millimeters
or half the width of a human hair.
[Mireya] And you can already see the definition coming in.
That's amazing.
When you don't have an animal in front of you
and you're trying to reconstruct
what it looked like or its behavior,
many times, in the fossil records,
we only have one or two bones
to give us what the entire picture look like.
This is not dissimilar,
but the fact that we have this print
we can actually analyze.
I feel like we can get a lot of information from that.
All right, well, the scan looks complete,
so now I'm going to see if I can actually render it.
[Ronny] It could be possible,
whatever it was came from this direction.
So that's where I'm going.
Whoa, look at this,
something heavy and big is stepping
up and down through this
because all of the soil is displaced
and I'm seeing this path
definitely going right down that line.
I can clearly see something's trampling through here.
This looks like a good little spot to have a trail camp.
The most important thing here is that we found this print
with still days left on the expedition,
which gives us a window of time
to make more strides forward here.
We have a print, we know we have a location
where something big is coming down
to feed and get water.
So now with a few days left, we are confident
that we're going to get what we came here to get,
definitive proof that Bigfoot
does indeed exist in Washington State.
All right, we are armed.
[dramatic music playing]
[Russell] How are we doing over here?
It's processing right now,
but I think we're going to get
- a good scan. - Fantastic.
Yeah. This is all clear for you.
If you're ready, you can go ahead and pour.
[Russell] When this stuff is drained quickly.
[Mireya] Russ, when you're done with that,
you got to take a look at this.
I cannot wait to see what you got.
Check this out.
[Russell] Wow, you can see toe separation in there.
[Mireya] Yeah, you can, very clear arch.
Holy smokes.
- [Ronny] Hey, guys. - You are just in time.
- [Ronny] Really? - [Mireya] Check this out.
- This is awesome. - [Russell] Look what she got
- on the scan in there. - [Ronny] Holy [bleep]
[Russell] That blows my mind.
[Mireya] So between this and that,
I think we've really covered this.
Yup. Think about all the stuff
that brought us to this point.
We've been chasing tracks, we've been chasing
vocalizations, thermal imaging.
We've got a few more days left.
I think we should just focus our attention here,
- set up a base camp. - Yup.
[Russell] Start canvassing this area.
We need to call Bryce.
[Ronny] Definitely.
[dramatic music playing]
[phone rings]
[Bryce] Hey, Mireya, what's up?
[Mireya] Bryce, we have made a discovery.
- What did you find? - [Mireya] Not one
but two sets of really good-looking footprints.
- Mireya, that's huge. - [Mireya] Yeah, I think
you should pack up and make your way over here.
We're gonna need an extra set of hands.
We need to spend the last few days that we're here
- in this location. - Oh, definitely.
I want to see these. Look, I'll, uh...
I'm just going to find out your coordinates
and I'll meet you guys right down there.
- Great job. - [Mireya] Yeah. Thanks.
All right. I'll see you soon.
Wow, this could be it.
[producer speaking]
Yeah. What's up?
[producer speaking]
What's going on?
[man] The fire department's already strained
by unprecedented wildfires,
the region are fighting a new fire
that has broken out on the Olympic Peninsula.
The blaze was sparked by a lightning strike
and is not yet contained.
[Bryce] So now there's a fire
that's near the team on the Olympic Peninsula
and obviously fire is extremely dangerous,
but now air quality is extremely hazardous,
so it's too close for comfort.
[dramatic music playing]
[Russell] We've got a lot of activity down here
and using this space and this time,
it's gonna be absolutely perfect.
Tonight we're gonna be waiting.
Now I feel like we're really onto something.
This is a real critical moment in our expedition
and it's time for the whole team to come together.
Having Bryce join us is super important
so that we can really divide and conquer
and get to the bottom of what made these prints.
So if I zoom in here, turn it this way.
- Yup. - Hey, guys.
- [Ronny] Hey. - [Mireya] Hey, Bryce,
- you made it, man. - How's it going?
Check this out. Got the scan,
the footprint that Russ found.
- So we're hoping that... - [Bryce] Wow.
...whatever was there is going to come back again
- to that water source. - [Bryce] Yeah.
And we've got the place blanketed in trail camps.
- [Russell] Yeah. - So the next three days,
we'll cover a lot of ground,
maybe a quarter mile up if you...
[Mireya] And I want to go across on the other side.
-Yeah. -You know what? I need to actually...
I need to stop you guys. I know that, uh,
that we're getting really excited about all the things
that we're anticipating, uh, but unfortunately
I have some really bad news.
Due to the wildfires in the area
and the smoke that has settled in,
the air quality index is over 300
which is hazardous.
Our production team has been informed
by the authorities
that we have to shut down today.
[suspenseful music playing]
Unfortunately, I have some bad news.
Our production team has been informed
by the authorities that we have to shut down.
[Russell] What?
- Today. - [Russell] Come on.
- Are you serious? - I'm dead serious.
[narrator] Massive wildfires
have caused the air quality of the area
to be extremely hazardous.
I fought them tooth and nail
but there's an uncontained wildfire
that's not far from here.
You can see it's getting worse by the hour.
And obviously you guys have noticed
you can't even see a hundred yards
in front of you it seems like.
[Ronny] Yeah.
So you're saying we have to pack up right now?
That's exactly what I'm saying.
Our team has given so much and we've come so close
and it's absolutely devastating
that something like these wildfires has taken place.
So there's no way about it.
We have to shut production down.
But look, we're not done here.
Obviously seeing something like this
and all the evidence that you guys have amassed
told me that not only did our algorithm work again,
but we were getting really close.
[Russell] We've never been closer.
- [Bryce] Yeah, seriously. - We've never been closer.
Yeah.
[Ronny] Man, I am crushed right now.
- Yeah, I know, me too. - [Ronny] I'm heartbroken.
[Bryce] But for right now Bigfoot hunting is done.
We have to go.
It feels like we're getting really close
and then to have just the rug pulled out from under us,
it's not an easy way to walk out of here.
There's usually a feeling of closure,
like you've set out on your mission
and you've achieved your goals.
We don't get to walk away like that from here.
And the frustrating part is
we're not even sure if we can come back.
It's very possible that this forest
will no longer be here.
It's hard to describe what I'm feeling.
We have put our heart and soul
into this expedition.
We have sacrificed so much
and we've come so close to something
that for me I've been looking for all my life,
but it's just one of those things
that it's out of our control.
So I am just praying
that we're able to come back to this location
and we'll pick up where we left off.
This just gets me more fired up
and gets me more excited for the future
because we know that we have now evidence,
definitive proof that Sasquatch does indeed exist.
This is just the beginning.
We're not leaving empty-handed.
[Russell] This cast is the first piece
of significant tangible evidence.
I'm not a quitter and the toughest thing
going to do today is to get in my truck
and drive away from this spot.
And that doesn't feel good at all.
[dramatic music playing]
[Russell coughs]
Yeah, you can't even see out in front of you.
I'm heartbroken.
You know, this couldn't have happened at a worse time,
miss those few days that I think
would have been absolutely key.
We literally got the closest we have ever been.
That's gonna keep eating away at me.
And even though this expedition is over,
it's not over for me.
It's not over by a long shot.
[Ronny] This isn't how I saw this ending.
[Bryce] Yeah, I know, me neither, man.
[Mireya] It's insane.
Look at how smoky at all as you can barely see the sun.
Any longer we could have got stuck out here.
[Bryce] Yeah, no kidding.
- But that's nature for you. - [Bryce] Yeah.
It's a lot stronger than we are.
Right at the onset of this expedition,
we were seeing the power of nature.
We started with COVID.
We had a lot of challenges and struggles getting out here
and now we're ending the expedition with yet
another example of how powerful nature is
with these wildfires.
There's a real clear message
from beginning to end on this expedition
that nature will always win.
[dramatic music playing]
[ringtone]
- Hi, Jeff. - Hi.
Hi. Nice to see you.
You too.
I have been really anxious to get on this call with you
and see what you thought about the cast that we sent you
because you're the guy and I couldn't think of anyone
more perfect to take a look at this find.
Oh, I appreciate the confidence you put in me.
- Thanks. - [Mireya] There is no one
more qualified in the world to analyze these prints
than anthropologist Dr. Jeffrey Meldrum.
For decades, he's been researching
and investigating the phenomenon of Bigfoot.
And he has amassed this amazing collection
of alleged Bigfoot prints from all over the world.
So I am really hoping that he's able to tell us
more definitively if what we got here
is a really strong piece of evidence.
So I have been really on pins and needles
wanting to know what your analysis is
of this cast that we sent you.
And I'm really hoping that
you have some new information.
[Jeff] I do. Interestingly,
when it comes to whether this
is a human footprint or not,
we're looking at, um,
a good 15-inch track here.
The number of humans who have
a 15-inch foot is miniscule.
I mean, we're talking like tenths of one percent
of the population even that.
So unless you... Uh,
unless you happen to bump into some, uh,
professional basketball players out there
in your field exploits,
I think pretty unlikely that it's...
That it was a human traipsing around,
which brings us to the next criteria.
And that is, was it hoax
- or not? - Mmm-hmm. Yeah.
Did, uh, someone on your crew salt the mind
or did someone interloper from outside
leave some evidence for you to find.
Could a hoaxer be knowledgeable enough
to incorporate these subtleties of anatomy?
I mean, one thing that was interesting that I...
That it caught my eye right off the bat
is that I know if you can notice here,
but on the side here,
there's a pair of bulges
which anatomically correspond to the bone
that lies right here in the instep,
what we refer to as a metatarsal.
- Mmm-hmm. - Here's another...
- Yeah. - ...example that shows that
remarkably well, this one not far
from where we are in Western Washington.
And, uh, illustrating
that same kind of a feature.
The same bulges.
- That's remarkable. - [Jeff] Same anthology.
It's, uh, remarkably similar.
A subtle detail of anatomy like that
most people would be totally unaware of.
Few people would have the wherewithal
to incorporate the distinguishing aspects
of the Sasquatch foot anatomy
into one of these fake feet.
Really? So let me ask you this,
given that, how easy or difficult is it
to hoax a Bigfoot print
that has all of these different characteristics?
Early on, it was suggested that all Sasquatch footprints
resulted from these very crude carved wooden feet
with leather straps to attach them
to your hiking boots. And all one has to do
is to experiment with that until a couple of times
realize how unlikely that would be... would be the case.
I mean, first and foremost,
attaching that much larger foot
has the effect of a snowshoe.
You float on top of the substrate
rather that than sinking in.
[Jeff speaking]
Right.
So given these clear characteristics
that you look for, how does the footprint
that we sent you add up?
Well, the first impression that I had looking at this
was there was anatomy to be seen.
Right off the bat, it was obvious
that there was a toe row
and there were five distinct toes
that were of an appropriate proportionality.
I, uh, made some very careful tracings
of the outline of the foot.
In the center is the footprint in question
and I took just a couple of examples.
I was immediately struck by the overall resemblance
in proportion in size to the footprints
from the Patterson-Gimlin film site.
And so, on the left
is a tracing of one of those casts.
- Mmm-hmm. - [Jeff] And then on the right
is another track end hit,
there's some striking resemblances as well.
Wow, I see that.
But having said that, I got in there, you know,
really close with a... with a strong light,
and there are some patches
where there looks to be skin ridge detail.
- Really? - They were so slight,
but that's typical of primates.
That's incredible.
[Jeff] So what you presented me with
comports with...
the real Sasquatch footprint.
Wow.
[suspenseful music playing]
[Jeff] There looks to be skin ridge detail.
- Really? - They were so slight,
but that's typical of primates.
- That's incredible. - So I'm confident
you haven't misidentified a human.
It's clearly not a bear.
I'm leaning to a real Sasquatch footprint.
- Wow. - Yeah. [laughs]
[Mireya] So, you don't think this is a hoax?
You think this one looks pretty consistent
- with the other ones? - I do. I do.
There's always this specter hanging over us
- of is it credible or not. - Yeah.
[Jeff] But, I mean, given the context and circumstances
you described, I think it's a solid piece of evidence
that there was a Sasquatch there on that stream bank.
Wow. Amazing.
- That's a real accomplishment. - Yeah.
I'm completely blown away by Dr. Meldrum's findings.
And to go as far as to finding dermal ridges on it,
really makes me feel that we're onto something,
that we have the best piece of evidence to date
from these expeditions.
There's a real possibility
that there's something out there
and that we might make this discovery.
[dramatic music playing]