[Josh] On this episode of Expedition X,
reported attacks by an aggressive monster
in the farthest reaches of Alaska
have locals on edge.
[Sean] I heard a coyote getting killed.
It was scary.
[Josh] My team heads to the last frontier
to stalk what could be the infamous Sasquatch.
[Phil] It was right here.
[Jess] There's like, two sets of tracks.
[Phil] Holy [bleep]
All right, you just send it up...
There are the trees.
[Josh] But Phil and Jess soon realize
that this Alaskan beast...
might be stalking them.
-[Jess] There it is. -[dramatic music playing]
That thing is sprinting.
-Oh, [bleep] Oh, my God. -[Jess] Oh, that's it.
[Phil] Okay, you guys.
I have something I really want to show you
that I cannot stop thinking about.
These are photos that were recently taken
at Alaska's Denali National Park.
And I got to say,
they're pretty interesting.
-[Josh] Whoa. -[Jess] Ooh.
That's Sasquatch. There you go.
Phil, are we looking at genuine Sasquatch prints here?
You know I'm not going to go that far,
but what I will say is that they are unusual.
Initially, I thought, okay, it could be bear,
but bears have five toe pads.
This looks more like three or four.
Also, it looks like something that's walking on two legs,
not four legs.
So, based on these images,
this is not something I can identify.
Because it's a Sasquatch.
[Josh] Did the National Park weigh in on this?
They did.
And they agree.
It does look like
something walking on two legs.
But they also said it could be a wolf
whose hind foot stepped
in the exact same spot as the front foot.
But then again,
they didn't actually go there to investigate it.
Uh-huh. And you'd like to?
I've already started.
And the more I research this,
the more I think we need to get there now
while the evidence is hot.
Because, considering Alaska's vast wilderness,
there could be something big out there
waiting to be found.
This is a really compelling case,
not just because of this evidence.
When it comes to legends
of unknown creatures in Alaska,
there is more mythology there
than anywhere else in the country.
[Josh] Alaska, the last frontier.
A land shrouded in mystery
that has long beckoned rugged explorers
into its vast, punishing,
and mostly unexplored wilderness.
Today, civilization has only encroached
into around 250 of Alaska's almost 665,000 square miles,
leaving an area about twice the size of Texas
completely uninhabited.
It's not just the wilderness that's dangerous here.
-It's the wildlife. -[bear growling]
Grizzly bears, Arctic wolves,
and even the gargantuan moose
all pose a threat
to humans unlucky enough to cross their paths.
But some believe the most dangerous creature of them all
is one that is yet to be discovered.
The Alaskan Sasquatch.
Reported encounters with the creature
date back to 1899,
when US Army Captain W.R. Abercrombie leads
an expedition into Alaska
during the Klondike Gold Rush.
In his report, Abercrombie includes
an encounter with a miner
who claims that his son has been killed
by a hairy beast he describes as a demon.
Most infamously, there's also the case of Portlock,
a village on the Kenai Peninsula.
The once-bustling fishing and canning community
is hastily abandoned in the 1940s
after a string of shocking disappearances
and savage attacks
reportedly perpetrated by a large,
hairy, man-like creature.
Indigenous legends go back even further.
Some native southwestern Alaskans warn children
not to venture alone into the forest,
lest they fall prey to the Urayuli,
or hairy man.
A legendary beast, said to be taller than a bear,
with shaggy fur, a strange call,
and a penchant for punishing disobedient kids.
While the Inuit people of Northern Alaska
warn of the Tunit,
a giant, man-like beast
that once peacefully coexisted with humans.
Today, lifelong Alaskans and tourists alike
continue to report harrowing encounters
with huge, humanoid, and often hairy creatures.
In the fall of 2021,
one witness reports that his dog is killed
by a possible Sasquatch near Susitna Creek.
Early in 2023,
a witness in Copper Valley claims to see
a furry, bipedal giant cross the highway.
And in just the last few weeks,
an oyster farmer from Homer has come forward with tales
of a disturbing encounter in Kachemak Bay.
Are these accounts a case of ancient folklore
casting a very long shadow?
Or could there be an undiscovered,
unfathomably violent creature
roaming the brutal Alaskan wilderness?
The evidence and sightings are so intriguing,
I just don't think we can pass this one by.
Look at this guy,
so enthusiastic about this.
I love this, too.
I mean, so many indigenous tribes in Alaska have
Sasquatch-like legends
that there's got to be something to this.
Okay, I don't want to snow
on anybody's subarctic parade here,
but just in terms of the eyewitness reports,
a big, shaggy, aggressive creature.
Couldn't this just be a bear?
I mean, bears can stand on two legs, right?
They absolutely can stand on two legs,
but they can't walk long distances on two legs.
I'm not saying it's Sasquatch.
I'm saying we need to go there to investigate.
And I already lined up our first witness,
and get this, he swears
that he just had a close encounter
with a Sasquatch.
Okay, amazing. So go up there,
meet this eyewitness, see what you can find out.
I'll look into
some of the other recent reports here,
and you guys stay safe,
especially considering
you're hunting a monster that could be hunting you.
-Yeah. -We'll try.
[Josh] It's an eight-hour flight
from New York to Anchorage.
Although the footprints in Denali National Park
that sparked Phil's interest have since melted,
the trail is far from cold
and has picked up to the south.
Jess and Phil take a four-hour drive
along the Kenai Peninsula
toward the town of Homer,
where they'll meet their first witness.
[Jess] How dangerous are we talking here?
Like, how would a Bigfoot kill you,
-do you think? -[Phil] Oh.
That's a fun question going into this.
I guess if you compare it to other primates,
chimpanzees, gorillas,
they're way stronger per mass of muscle than we are.
-Mm-hmm. -And they can kill mammals
-by ripping off their limbs. -Oh.
And I know chimpanzees and humans
have interacted in that way in the past and--
"Interacted that way in the past"?
Like, gotten their limbs ripped off?
Yeah, that if a chimp attacks a human,
they will rip off their ears or nose
or bite their face off.
-That's disgusting. -Yeah.
-And terrifying. -Yeah.
[Jess] So it boils down
to a really dangerous creature
that we're chasing after.
Yeah.
If they're out there, you don't want
to be their neighbor.
-[Jess] Mmm. -That's my guess.
Well, we're gonna meet with somebody who--
...may have moved in right next door?
[chuckles] May have moved in right next door.
[Phil] After a 12-hour travel day,
we finally arrive
at Homer's main port and harbor.
Fishing and charter boats line the docks,
that is in between the countless sea otters,
who may be as infamous around here
as the fabled Alaskan Sasquatch.
-[Jess] Hey, Sean. -[Sean] Hey.
Nice to meet you. Jess.
Nice to meet you. Hey, Phil.
[Phil] Sean Crosby is a local oyster farmer
who's lived in Alaska for nearly 40 years.
His alleged Sasquatch encounter occurred
at the site of the cabin
that he's building near Peterson Bay,
which is about a 15-minute boat ride
across Kachemak Bay.
-All right. Away we go. -[Phil exhales]
-[Jess] Good to go. -[Phil] Let's go.
[Phil] So, our long travel day just got even longer.
[Phil] So what is out there?
Well, there's a few small summer communities,
and then it's the Kenai Mountains.
It's a national park.
[Phil] How small are we talking when you say
"summer communities"?
[Sean] Anywhere from three cabins to 20
in some of the other bays and coves.
So, at any one time,
especially during winter and spring,
there's only probably a handful of people
on that entire area?
In winter, there will be none.
[Phil] No one else is out here?
[Sean] No. We are alone.
[Jess chuckles] All right.
[Phil] We got this whole peninsula [chuckles] to ourselves.
And what time of year were you out there
when you had your encounter?
[Sean] That was February 1st.
I'd been working on my cabin.
Winter's the best time to burn and slash.
[Phil] So, you're basically clearing land
-so you could build a cabin? -Correct.
[Jess] Do you think that whatever you heard is
fighting for territory,
now that people are building cabins out there?
No, I think it was winter hunting.
[dramatic music playing]
[Phil] You hear a lot of stories out here?
Yes, because of Port Chatham there.
-Portlock? -[Phil] Yeah.
We've heard the history of Portlock.
What do people around here believe
about what happened there?
Uh, some people do believe it.
The native Alaskans do.
-[Phil] Yeah? -[Sean] Yeah.
That, essentially, a Sasquatch came in there
and attacked people and killed
-almost an entire town? -Yeah.
Do you believe in Bigfoot or Sasquatch out here?
-I do now. Yeah. -[Jess] Yeah.
[Phil] Let's say you were a large predator
out here in the winter.
What kind of prey is out there
in this area of the peninsula?
The biggest game would be coyotes and wolves.
Small game, rabbits, uh, squirrels.
Are there bears out there too?
The bears will be coming out right about now, actually.
[Jess] Oh, great.
How do those bears behave
right when they come out of hibernation?
The same way you would
if you hadn't eaten in six months.
-[Jess] Ah, [bleep] -[Sean chuckles]
[Jess] God, I love Alaska.
We pull into Peterson Bay
and Sean docks up at the edge of his property.
All right.
There's a lot of [bleep] on this dock.
-[Phil] Sea-otter crap. -[Sean] Uh-oh.
[Jess chuckling] It's everywhere. Ugh!
From there, it's a short climb
to the site of Sean's future cabin
where he had his infamous run in
with what he thinks was a Sasquatch.
[dramatic music playing]
-So this is it? -This is it.
[Phil] Okay.
Can you take us back to that night?
Walk us through exactly what happened to you
that made you realize this was something a little odd.
It was about midnight, pitch black out,
coyotes howling all around me.
[Phil] Where was your tent?
Right underneath that black net there.
That particular night, I listened to the coyotes
for a few minutes.
[howling in distance]
-[Sean] And then I heard the sound -[coyote yelping]
of a coyote getting killed.
[coyote yelping]
That's not a fun sound to hear.
But you recognize it.
[Phil and Jess] Mm-hmm.
-[Phil] It's got that yelp-- -Correct.
-...and that kind of desperate whimper. -Right.
And that was somewhere off in the distance this way.
And I lay there listening.
And I started hearing
footsteps coming up this game trail.
[eerie music playing]
[faint shuffling]
[Sean] I was absolutely terrified.
[Jess] Were you able to record any of this?
[Sean] No, but I did catch the coyotes' howling.
-[clicks] -[coyotes yelping]
[yelping and howling continues]
-[Sean] They're close. They're real close. -They're super close.
-That's really close. -Very loud.
[Sean] When it was light, I came out,
and first thing I saw was blood drops
coming up the trail to right about here
where there was a small pool of blood.
[Phil] Hmm.
Could you see footprints in the snow?
[Sean] I could see impressions.
No toes, no claws or anything like that,
but it looked more like
a large, uh, foot in a moccasin sort of thing.
So could it have been somebody out here
that you just didn't know about?
Anything's possible,
but there again,
it was midnight,
no flashlight, no headlamp,
no boats in the bay here.
What else could be walking around?
[Sean] Uh, well, it could be a wolf.
-[Jess] But then there would be drag marks, right? -[Sean] Yeah.
-[Jess] Did you have any drag marks? -No.
Okay.
Bears?
Not in early February.
[Jess] Hmm.
[Sean] I don't know what it was,
but I was so terrified
that the only thing I could do was
just grab my gun and lay there.
It was scary.
-[Jess] Yeah. It sounds scary. -[Phil] Okay.
The last direction you saw it go was
that trail of blood leading up that way?
-Yes. -Okay.
Then, Jess, I think we should go up that way.
Okay. I agree.
You guys have a sat phone?
-We do. -We do.
Good. The bears are starting to come out right now,
so be careful.
But if you should get into any trouble,
there's a trapper cabin not far that way.
[both] Okay.
Well, that's good to know.
Yeah. We'll look out for that.
Even if we just need some shelter for the night.
Awesome. Well, thank you so much.
-Pleasure. -Thanks you, Sean.
-Good luck on the cabin. -Nice meeting you.
Ooh, look at this view.
[Jess] Let me see.
Ooh! That's pretty.
Wow.
[Phil] The initial plan is
to get a lay of the land surrounding Sean's property
before we set up our camp.
-All right. Getting steep right here, Jess. -Oh, jeez.
Yeah, it does. Hold on.
[Phil] As we try to track down
whatever it was that Sean witnessed,
we're potentially going to be
spending multiple nights out here in the elements,
isolated and cut off from civilization.
So, the trapper cabin that he mentioned could
come in real handy for us.
We found it, Jess.
[whispers] Jess, hold on.
-[Jess speaks softly] What? -Just remember,
if this is the only shelter for miles,
there could be something living in it right now.
Oh.
[Phil] So, let's just... enter carefully.
Anything?
I don't think so.
Hold on. Let me check the corner.
-Ooh, careful. -Oh, my God.
Like someone almost...
[Jess] Ugh. It's disgusting.
Something's definitely been living in here.
-[Jess shrieks] -[Phil exclaims]
[dramatic music playing]
-[Jess shrieks] -[Phil grunts]
-[yelling] I saw a rat! -You saw a rat?
[chuckling] I saw a rat.
-I'm sorry. [laughs] -You scared me
into falling through the floor.
[Jess] Ugh! What have you kicked up?
[exclaims in disgust]
Okay. This place looks disgusting, though.
It looks really disgusting.
It's totally not usable,
except for in a bind
in a really bad snowstorm...
we can hide in here and hope the roof doesn't collapse.
I'm going to work on GPS
so that we can head back here.
Yeah, I wouldn't want to stay in here too, too long.
-[GPS beeps] -No.
We got to find a game trail.
[Jess] All right.
Ooh, watch the floor.
[Phil] If we want to lure a large predator out of hiding
and if indeed coyotes are its natural prey,
then we need to get the coyotes out.
So, we're on the lookout for an active game trail,
a path created
by the natural movements of animals.
-[Jess] Look over there. To your left. -Yeah.
Right there.
[Phil] That's a game trail.
[Jess] Perfect.
[Phil] We finally find one near the banks of a river,
down a ways from the old hunter's cabin.
All right. Let's do it.
We canvas the game trail with our camera traps
to give us more sets of eyes.
Smile for the camera.
Coyotes may be using this area as a feeding ground,
so that means any alleged Sasquatch
or unidentified beast could be using it too.
So, considering this is the most solid game trail
we've seen the entire time,
I wonder if we set up the coyote lure right here...
and see what comes in?
Yeah, absolutely.
Okay, Jess. You want to see this thing?
Yeah. I'm curious.
[chuckling] Oh, my God.
Yep. And just wait. Wait.
[motor whirring]
Is that...
for real?
This actually works.
-Seriously? -Seriously.
Okay.
Something about the fuzziness in this triggers
the predatory response in an animal like a coyote,
and they just go straight for it.
-All right. -All right.
-So, I'm going to put it-- -All right.
...where it's nice and visible.
[softly] That looks ridiculous.
But I think it's going to work.
[Jess] Is that ketchup in your hand?
What you got over there?
[incredulously] Coyote juice?
We're busting out
-the big guns tonight, Jess. -Wow!
Wow!
All right.
Let's do this.
[Phil] The best way to lure in a coyote is
through their sense of smell.
Our coyote juice emits a powerful scent
that triggers their curiosity
and predatory instinct.
-[Jess] Good? -Yeah.
[Jess] All right. [hums] Back up.
[Phil] We spray coyote juice all along the trail
and rig up more camera traps.
As night falls,
we establish our surveillance perch
on a hill that overlooks the game trail.
[speaking indistinctly]
[Phil] Get the FLIR up and running.
I calibrate the thermal imager
while Jess sets up the parabolic mic.
Getting a visual heat signature might be more challenging
through the thick forest.
[Jess] Oh, yeah.
[Phil] But we should be able to at least hear
any animal or beast
that approaches the game trail below.
So, since the lure is that way,
the scent trail is this way,
I'm just going to leave the FLIR...
Right there?
...pointing in that direction, recording.
[soft rustling]
[soft cracking]
[Phil whispers] Jess, is that moving?
[Jess whispers] Oh, yeah. Big time.
[Phil] It's the hot spot right there.
[Jess] Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I hear it, too.
You can actually see there's a branch right in front of it,
-so it's behind one of the trees up there. -Yeah.
[Phil speaking]
-[Jess] Ooh. What's that down there? -What's that?
-[Phil] That, I think, was a little-- -Oh.
[Phil speaking]
It's moving along the trail.
Is that other heat signature still there?
Yep.
What we could be about to see right now is
whatever the big thing is go after
whatever the little thing is.
[Jess speaking]
No.
[rapid beeping]
Oh [bleep] Jess.
Did you get a hit?
-Oh, nice. Oh! -Oh, my God.
That was it. That was it!
-[Phil] Look, look, look, look. -That's it.
We got a tail.
So, a fox or a coyote or something.
I-- I think that's a coyote or a wolf.
[Jess] You think a wolf?
[Phil] By the thickness of that tail,
it's definitely not a fox.
It's too tall.
So the coyote lure is working.
-This game trail is active. -Yeah.
[Phil speaking]
We've basically attracted every large predator
within a mile or two of here to this location.
-[rustling] -I heard that.
It sounded like it was right in front of me.
Oh, man. I can't see anything.
[Phil] No.
Nothing on the FLIR?
-I feel like something-- -[shrieking]
[Jess] Where was that? Where was that? I couldn't tell.
-It just started echoing. It was so loud. -God.
[faint footsteps]
[Jess speaking]
Okay. Okay. Okay.
[suspenseful music playing]
[Jess] Did you see anything?
[Phil] Nothing on the FLIR.
[Jess] I was hearing something running in this direction.
[shrieking]
-[Jess] Oh, that was definitely over there. -Oh, my God.
[Jess] Something's running.
[Phil] That was a coyote...
yelping as if it just got attacked by something.
-[Jess] Nothing on your FLIR? -I got nothing.
[whistling]
[Jess] Was that a whistle?
[Phil] We should head that direction.
[Jess] Many experts in the cryptozoology world believe
that Sasquatch communicate by whistling.
So we might have just heard one
up close and personal.
I don't see anything.
[Phil] Snow is melted right here,
so we're not going to have good luck with tracks.
Oh, [bleep].
That is a cliff right there.
[Jess] Oh, yeah. That's a straight drop.
That's like 30 feet.
[Jess] Did something fall off the cliff?
It's possible. It's super icy at the edge right here.
Let me see if there's anything down there.
Got nothing on the FLIR.
[Jess] All right. So, here's the thing.
I'm not seeing any evidence
of whatever was making that noise,
but we definitely have coyote or wolf in the area.
[Phil] Let's head back.
[Phil] We return to our surveillance spot
and continue our stakeout.
But the trail goes quiet for the rest of the night.
So we decide to shift our strategy.
The next day, Jess and I split up
to gather more intel.
While she tracks down another alleged Sasquatch witness,
I pay a visit to the local zoo
to see if the legend of the Alaskan Hairy Man could
simply be a pervasive case of mistaken identity.
Wow, it's staring at me.
[bear purrs]
It's a big boy.
[Phil] Rich Capitan is the Education Director
at the Alaska Zoo
and one of the foremost authorities
on wildlife in the area.
Given your extensive experience out here
and scientific background,
how do you interpret it
when people say they've encountered
something like a Sasquatch?
Sure.
I always run, kind of, through the rolodex in my head.
"Well, all right. That could be the case.
But what might you run into, you know, more likely?
Is it a brown bear? You know, is it a black bear?
Is it a person? If it's that big,
sounds like a brown bear."
When they stand upright, how tall are they?
Oh, gosh, I mean, they can be, you know, ten feet.
[Phil] Wow.
[Rich] It's looking like, with climate change
and temperatures changing, uh,
brown bears are moving,
basically, into polar bear habitat.
And the two are kind of meeting and intermingling,
and they are able to reproduce.
[Phil] Hmm.
Species are doing, kind of, unexpected things.
Interesting.
[bear growls]
[grunts]
[Jess] Hi!
[car door closes]
-Nice to meet you. -Nice to meet you.
-How are you doing? -Good, thanks.
-Ryan. -Nice to meet you, Ryan.
While Phil is at the zoo, I've arranged
to speak with Fred Roehl and Ryan Benner.
Fred is a native Alaskan and local Sasquatch expert
who's been collecting encounter stories
from his fellow Alaskans for years.
One of his newest contacts is Ryan, who had a recent scare
in these woods.
I was out hiking
-next to a creek-- -[Jess] Mm-hmm.
...and I brought my two dogs with me.
Off to my left, I heard a sharp whistle.
It was like a-- [whistles]
[whistling]
It sounded like a person whistling.
[Jess] Hmm.
Phil and I heard a whistle
in our investigation last night.
[whistling]
[Jess] I want to dig further,
as this could be a substantial link
between the various Sasquatch sightings in the region.
Like trying to get your attention kind of thing?
Yeah, yeah, and continue along the game trail.
And from my front,
-I hear another whistle. -[whistling]
So the first one was off to my left.
The second one was from my front.
After we heard the second whistle,
I could hear something rubbing up against the spruce trees.
[Jess] So, something moving through the woods?
[Ryan] Yeah, and it was coming towards us.
And that's where the alarm bells started going off for me.
If it was a bear,
it would've changed direction from my smell.
-[Jess] Mm-hmm. -You know, they don't like people.
[Jess] Did the dogs react at all
when they heard this whistle?
[Ryan] They reacted to the second whistle a little bit,
-like their ears peeked up. -Uh-huh.
[Ryan] And as I decided to leave, the dogs left me...
[dogs barking]
[Ryan] ...which is abnormal.
They stick, usually, right next to me.
This noise parallels me
for about 150 yards.
-So it starts tracking alongside you? -Yeah, I can hear it.
I couldn't see it, and I couldn't see any trees moving,
-but I could hear this thing paralleling me out... -Uh-huh.
...to the end of the trail.
-That's legit terrifying. -Uh, yeah.
Just to know that something's, like, stalking you
in the woods.
[Jess] What got you into collecting
stories of people's experiences?
Um...
-because we're losing elders at a fast rate. -[Jess] Mm-hmm.
And so I decided to start
collecting the stories.
And, so it's just to continue
that lineage of the oral history,
and instead of just keeping it exclusively native,
I... expanded out to all Alaskans,
'cause, you know, there's people throughout the state
that deal with the hairy man,
completely covered in hair,
-but with, like, an ash-gray skin tone. -Okay.
Do you mind giving me the coordinates
to where you had your encounter?
-Yeah, I'll text them to you. -Okay, perfect.
Let's just say I probably think about the Sasquatch
similar to the way that you think about it.
In general, I'm skeptical
but very curious as to what someone actually did see.
Yeah.
But the question I always come across is
if something like that has
lived around here for thousands of years,
why is there no carcass?
Why is there no fossil evidence?
If you've been out in the woods, you know,
how often do you find the carcass of a bear?
It's not very common.
-[Phil] Hmm. -You know, nature takes care of it really quickly.
Up here, we've got porcupines and other rodents
that eat those bones
-for the calcium. -Really?
So those carcasses disappear pretty darn quick.
And there's also talk, you know, if it's a Sasquatch,
is that a cultural thing that species has
where, what if they bury their dead?
Um... You know, something like that.
So there's kind of a lot of unknowns
and you know, variables there.
Interesting.
While a mistaken identity might be a reason
for many Alaskan Hairy Man sightings,
it's interesting that a career biologist like Rich doesn't
doesn't completely close the door on the idea
of an elusive Bigfoot roaming these wilds.
After our day of research, Jess and I meet up
to plan our Sasquatch search for night number two.
I did get coordinates from Ryan
as to where he had his encounter.
It looks really far away.
[Phil] Well, if it's so remote,
any ideas how we're gonna get out there?
[Jess] Yeah. Snowmobiles.
[Phil] Snowmobiles it is.
[engines revving]
[Phil speaking]
[Phil] Through the trees.
[Jess speaking]
[Phil speaking]
[Jess speaking]
[Phil speaking]
[engine revs]
[Phil] I got you.
Let me help you out.
[engine revving]
[Jess exclaims] Behind you.
[Jess] We continue on and cut through the woods
as far as the snowmobiles can take us.
But in order to get to the exact spot
where Ryan had his alleged encounter,
that requires a bit of a hike on foot.
GPS says we should be going that way.
[Phil] That looks like some thick snow.
[Jess] Some of the snow here can reach depths
of up to six feet this time of year,
but we should be able to stay on the surface
with these snowshoes.
All right, let's go.
[Jess] Oh, man, even with the snowshoes,
-I'm sinking. -Yeah.
[Jess sighs]
[Phil exhales]
[Phil groans]
[Jess grunts]
All right, hold up.
How are we looking?
We are right on it.
[Phil exhales]
-This is the spot, huh? -This is the spot.
[eerie music playing]
-[Phil] Okay. -[Jess sighs] Set up camp?
[Phil] I say we set up camp here.
[Jess] Okay.
I'll build us a little snow shelter here.
I'll start working on the tripwire.
-[Phil] All right. -See you in a bit.
[Phil] Time to start digging.
[strains]
[Jess] Ryan said that whatever he encountered
stalked him from all sides.
So while Phil builds us a protective snow bunker
to keep us out of sight tonight,
I establish a perimeter all around our position
using a tripwire alarm system.
[Phil strains]
All those years building snow forts as a kid
finally paying off.
[strains]
Here's what we've got.
I've got a... personal alarm
and some wire.
We're going to tie this end to one tree trunk,
tie this end to another tree trunk.
That way, if anything busts through this wire,
-it will pull this out of the alarm. -[alarm ringing]
-[alarm stops] -And we know that something's trying
to sneak up on us.
So inside this case,
I have four microphones just like this.
They're unidirectional microphones, meaning--
for example, this one that is pointing due north.
Uh, and then I'll go [inhales sharply]
south, east, west as well.
And I'll have them all fed into an iPad
that gives me the different levels.
Using this setup, we'll know 100%
if something's coming from the north or the west
or somewhere in between.
And we'll know to look in that direction
and maybe head that way too.
So we've got the snow fort built.
Microphones are all recording.
Obviously, we want to document something that's out here
but we don't want that something to get too close.
We have snowshoes to try to walk around in the snow,
and we don't do it very gracefully.
Any big predator out here,
bear, sasquatch, or otherwise,
it's going to be very good at moving around.
We are at a distinct evolutionary disadvantage out here.
Welcome to your new office.
It actually looks quite nice.
I'm very impressed.
I think it's-- [yelps]
-[both chuckle] -I'm still walking on the stairs.
[Jess] This looks like
-a modern art exhibit. -[Phil chuckles]
[Jess laughs] What-- What?
So, talk a little bit.
[Jess] Talk, talk, talk.
So you are south and a little bit west.
[Jess] Oh, that's great.
And if I talk, I'm south and a little bit east.
Ooh.
-It just got really quiet. -[whispers] Yeah, it sure did.
I have a whistle on my backpack.
You want to try and lure something here?
-All right. -Might as well try it.
Yeah.
-[Jess] All right? -Yeah.
[blowing whistle]
I either...
scared it away or drew it closer.
We're committed now. Go for it.
-[Jess] Again? [inhales] -Yeah.
[blowing whistle]
[Phil] It's picking up something to the north.
[Jess whispering]
[faint rustling]
[whispers] What the [bleep] is that noise, Jess?
-[whispers] I can hear it. -Sounds like something's being dragged.
[Jess] I hear it. Hold on.
[faint rustling]
[Phil] A little bit more left.
We're south.
It should be right around there.
[Jess] Okay. Yeah. I hear it coming from that direction.
I'm not seeing-- Oh.
[rustling]
[Jess] What was that? Did you see that?
Did you see that right there?
Weird. Okay.
-You see that, right? -Whoa, whoa, whoa.
-That? -Yeah. Did you see that?
[Phil] Is that eyeshine?
[Jess] That's what I'm thinking.
[Phil whispering]
[Jess whispering]
Whatever we're hearing does not sound small, Jess.
No, it does not.
Oh, [bleep] that's getting close.
[alarm beeping]
That's one of the alarms.
[alarm beeping continues]
[intense music playing]
Just 20 miles from where the team investigated
on the Kenai Peninsula,
lies the abandoned fishing village of Portlock.
It was once a bustling community.
But according to legend,
an Alaskan Sasquatch changed all that.
In the 1940s, villagers reported sightings
of a hairy bipedal creature.
According to accounts,
residents then began to vanish,
before bodies started showing up
in the nearby wilderness.
The community was said to be terrified.
Businesses closed. The school shuttered.
Families, fearing that they'd be next,
packed up and fled, abandoning the town forever.
Now, what exactly happened to Portlock remains a mystery.
The buildings and homes have long since decayed,
gradually consumed by the relentless Alaskan wilderness.
Today, the few traces that remain are
eerie reminders of an entire village
supposedly destroyed
because of the fearsome Alaskan Sasquatch.
[alarm beeping]
[Phil] It was right here.
[Jess] There's like two sets of tracks.
[Phil] Holy [bleep].
[Jess] This has got to be a game trail.
[Phil] Oh, yeah.
[alarm continues beeping]
-[Jess speaks indistinctly] -[Phil shushes]
[alarm continues beeping]
[Jess] There's the alarm, right there.
[Phil] Keep your eyes out for anything.
[alarm stops]
[Phil] Okay.
[coyotes howling]
-You hear all those coyotes barking too? -Yeah.
Yeah, it was quiet the whole night
until this just happened
and those things went off.
I mean, it definitely ran through here
and look at this.
[Phil] Oh, my God.
-[Jess] Yeah. -So it must have ran
all the way up here.
-Tripwire scared it. -Tripped it. Yup.
And it freaked out and ran back out.
It looks like it stuck around here for a little bit.
[Jess] Well, it's probably sitting and watching us.
-[Phil] God, look how far that trail goes. -Yeah.
It's so hard to tell.
-[Jess] That one looks really-- -It looks big,
but it also looks kinda pointed. I can't tell.
If something is sprinting through this snow,
is it going to be running on its toes
or completely flat footed?
Yeah, I don't know.
[Phil] I don't think we stand a chance
trying to actually track that thing down
and keep up with it. What if...
we try to send the thermal drone after it?
Let's do that from base camp
'cause I want to make sure that we actually have,
like, all our defenses up as much as possible
because I do not feel good just sitting out here...
waiting to be attacked.
[Phil] Our snow bunker is
the only defensive position out here,
so we head back there
and prepare to launch our thermal drone.
[Phil exhales] Let's get this thing in the air.
Whatever set off the tripwire alarm could still be close by.
So we need to get eyes on it.
All right. Drone is going up.
[rotors whirring]
[Jess] Nice.
[Phil] All right, I'm gonna send it up.
Clear the trees.
And...
-west. Let's see where that gets us. -Okay.
[Jess] So, those are all the treetops, yeah?
[Phil] Those are all the treetops.
Oh, everything's blue.
It's so cold.
[Phil] Yeah.
[Phil inhales sharply]
Okay. Come on.
Where are you? Where are you?
-Oh, [bleep]. -Is that--
Did you see that glimmer?
-Yeah, yeah, yeah. -There it is.
Okay, I'm chasing it.
God, it's fast.
It's super-fast.
[Phil] That thing is sprinting.
[Jess] Chase it, chase it, chase it.
[Phil] Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
-Wow, that is hauling. -It is fast.
[dramatic music playing]
-[Phil] Oh. Oh. No. -Whoa, whoa, whoa. You're going too fast.
Go back. Go back, go back.
[Phil] What just happened to the drone?
Jess, we got it.
[Phil] [bleep] It's lost signal.
-Did you hit a tree? -It just lost signal.
-Is it not connecting? -It's not connecting.
[Jess] All right. So, you can track the drone
with this thing, right?
We have the drone's last location,
but look at this.
-Video feed's completely blank. -[Jess sighs in exasperation]
It says, "Aircraft disconnected."
Okay. Well, I want that footage,
so let's go-- and the drone,
so let's go get it.
[Phil exhales]
[Jess] I'm following you, 'cause I don't know which way to go.
[Phil] Okay.
All right, Jess, do you want to take that side
I'll take this side?
[Jess] Yeah, I'll go over here.
[Phil speaks indistinctly]
[Phil] Jess?
-[Jess] You got it? -Got it.
[Jess exclaims] It's busted.
It is very busted. [whispering] Let's look around.
Let's look around.
'Cause this was flying
right over top of whatever that was.
[Jess] I mean, that thing took off.
[Phil] It did.
I'm not seeing any tracks.
I'm not even hearing anything.
Check this out.
All the blades are gone.
There isn't a prop blade there.
We have the SD card in here.
-So even though the signal cut out-- -Uh-huh.
-...this should have been still recording. -[Jess exhales]
So we'll be able to look at it
and maybe be able to identify it from that.
Let's take this back.
Let's plug the card in,
and let's check out that footage again.
Okay. Here, I'll grab this.
-[Phil] All right, thanks. -Uh-huh.
[Josh] The thermal drone managed to scare off
whatever it was chasing,
because Phil and Jess did not hear a peep
for the remainder of the night.
They did go back to the site of the tracks
so Phil could collect a snow sample
and run an environmental DNA test
on whatever left those large prints.
eDNA opens up the possibility
of analyzing imperceptible genetic material
that has been expelled into the surrounding environment.
Unfortunately, the results came back inconclusive,
possibly the result
of any biological material becoming compromised
by the melting snow.
When we later analyzed the thermal footage,
the figure's speed was clocked at roughly 15 miles per hour,
slower than a polar bear or Grizzly
but significantly faster than a human being,
especially in the deep Alaskan snow.
But when we slow the footage down,
it appears like it could be running
in a bipedal, human-like manner.
So is this the beast who stalked our eyewitnesses,
who maimed those coyotes...
[coyotes yelping]
[Josh] ...who's ravaged this region for decades?
There are many more questions than answers,
but one thing we do know is
is that if there is an Alaskan Sasquatch,
he remains at large.