Original subtitles

Previously on expedition big foot

I believe big foot are here in Washington in large numbers,

but something is causing that migration route to the fork

why is that taking place here?

We're ready to set up the first sensor.

This tech is unlike anything we've ever used before.

We've set up a seismic tripwire

along the northern boundary of our target zone.

If they are migrating up to Washington

they've got to come right past us.

Look at this.

That looks like a footprint to me.

And a big one.

We are rigging cameras.

If anything is on the side of the road

we're going to catch it.

That was pretty strange.

It was crawling across the road like a spider.

It was a sasquatch.

There's a heat signature here.

What is that?

What the is that?

Definitely not human sounding.

After spotting an unknown thermal signature

while monitoring the area around base camp,

mireya and biko are startled by a large, strange howl.

Biko, I don't recognize that. Do you?

Sort of sounded coyote-ish,

but it didn't quite sound like coyotes to me.

It was pretty eerie sounding.

That was crazy.

How about those heat signatures?

Have you seen any movement?

I'm not seeing any movement at all.

Yeah, that sounds like a plan.

If that heat signature were an animal,

you would expect it to have some kind of movement

and reaction to that loud sound.

But because there was no movement,

I suspected something like residual heat off a log or a rock.

- Hey. - Hey.

I'm hearing something crunching around out here.

- Which way? - Out here.

- That direction. - Yeah.

- I'm not seeing anything on the thermal. - -No.

Maybe we spooked it off.

Whatever it was.

There has been so much activity in and around our base camp,

and whatever it is, it's been really successful at avoiding us.

We need to figure out a way to get more of an advantage.

Let's, like, go way back to the base camp.

- Let's go. - Let's roll.

I think we should call Bryce.

Hey, mireya, what's going on?

Hey, Bryce, there's been a lot going on here at camp.

Really more than the... the tents and stuff.

Biko actually spotted something right over our camp,

literally watching over us.

Wait, wait, wait. So something was watching you guys at your camp?

I saw some movement come down the hill.

And I wasn't sure what it was, but it looked upright.

We went straight over there,

and we actually found some prints.

Look at this.

That looks like a foot, and a big one.

Not even 200 yards from our tents.

So there's definitely signs of movement in and around camp

and the trail cams aren't cutting it.

Do you have any tech that you could help us with here?

I actually have an idea on something that might help us cover that entire area.

And the tech is light years ahead of the trail cameras.

That would be great.

Let me get on it and make some calls.

- Thanks, Bryce. - Thanks, Bryce.

I'll talk to you later, then.

I'm hoping that with all this tech that we can see it.

I want to put eyes on this thing.

Maybe it's a young juvenile that's curious out here coming into its own

'cause some of the stuff that it's doing

would just seem counterproductive to the goal of staying hidden,

and keeping away from humans,

which I think is a pretty solid goal for, anyone, really.

I mean, I don't like being around humans.

And I am one. So...

See if we can get something coming through here.

Yeah.

Since last night. Right through here. Look at this.

Someone's walking right through here.

Nine miles from mireya and biko,

Russell is searching for the source of some strange clicking noises

he recorded on the parabolic mic last night.

Sounds like we're coming up to a little bit of water here.

You know, that parabolic mic picked up something

that I've never heard out here.

That sound was... It almost sounded like a clicking sound

or a... a popping sound.

It was just something kind of out of the ordinary.

I know we're on the trail.

I think it crossed.

There's no two ways about it.

We're getting wet.

Let's get the walking stick.

Yeah, that'll work.

Look right through here.

Something's been pushing these rocks through.

Something stood right here at this edge.

That's where it came out at.

Right there.

Whatever that was

came up through here, right here.

Right here.

And right here.

We're right on it.

Let's keep following this thing.

After getting across this waterway,

I'm seeing one, maybe two sets of tracks.

The thing is that they're moving really fast,

and my question is, why?

Are they trying to put some distance between me and their position?

Or are they rushing to get to some specific spot?

We know that this is a choke point for these creatures.

So wherever they're headed, will they be alone when they get there?

Or will they gather with more?

The only way I'm gonna find out is if I stay on this trail.

Back at the command center,

Bryce Johnson monitors the surveillance array they placed just five days ago.

So right now I'm just going over the, seismic sensors.

Bryce and the team placed an 18-mile long seismic trip wire...

We're good. I just turned the device on.

That spans the northernmost part of the target zone,

just below the fork,

that will alert them if any bipedal creature passes through.

Nothing seems to be triggering them right now.

So I'm actually gonna go ahead and, take a look at the camera footage

from last night's car investigation

because around 3:30

I was driving down this dark road on the eastern quadrant

of the target zone and something just darted, behind my car.

That was pretty strange.

So now I just want to go back through this footage.

I want to start by scanning the rear-facing thermal here.

Right there. Right there.

That's the thing that went behind my car.

Did you see that?

Look at this.

But unfortunately, because this thing went behind the car,

you know, as I'm driving down that road,

the distance is just getting greater and greater,

and the detail is getting less and less.

So, there's just not much information there.

If I check the footage from the other cameras

for the same time that this happened,

I might have a better shot of it.

Okay, so here's some of the ir footage.

Because if this thing was, like, close to the side of the road

and I know I passed by it and I got it on the rear,

I should have it on the passenger facing cameras.

Yeah, nothing.

Damn.

I do have some, some thermal here off the side.

You know what?

If it's back there and it's got body heat,

it doesn't matter how far back it is.

Right there. Right there.

There it is.

Look at that.

Wait a minute.

My gosh.

There's two.

Holy crap. That's two.

At the command center,

Bryce believes he just discovered two possible big foot

while examining footage from his car experiment last night.

I'm seeing two individuals, not just one.

But I see like a head, shoulders, like a hunkering down.

I feel like one is standing over the other one.

This is not a bear. That's not a deer.

No way. This is incredible.

Two upright walking creatures, approximately the same size.

What's really intriguing is the way they're positioned

almost in a strategic sense.

Maybe they're like waiting to cross the road.

Let's go back to the rear-facing thermal.

Take a look at that thing again.

I can barely make it out.

But right here, look.

So here's the first one. Do you see this right here?

And as I pass almost another quarter mile

there goes the other one.

Did you see that?

Wow.

You know what? I wonder where this was?

This essentially is our target zone.

And I was over here.

That is really close to where Russell's position is.

Hey, Russ.

Hey, man, it's Bryce.

Hey, Bryce.

I was doing a car investigation last night,

where, you know, I had all of the cameras basically equipped to the car.

And I captured something going behind the car.

But I'm reviewing the footage right now.

I got a great thermal,

and you're not gonna believe this, man. There's two of them.

Holy crap.

I took a look at a map, and what's really interesting

is where these creatures cross the road

is about 3 miles from where you are right now.

So these could be the creatures that you've already observed.

Yep.

Or if they are using this valley to gather,

then it could be another pair headed into the area.

This is huge.

I'll get you those coordinates from the direction I think they're going.

- All right. - I'll stay on it.

Okay. Sounds good, Russ. All right.

So.

We've got the two prints that we found right here.

Just outside of base camp,

mireya and biko are returning to the hillside

to collect evidence from the site where biko spotted

an upright animal watching him yesterday.

All right. Go ahead and measure that.

- Looks to be about 16. - Sixteen long. How wide?

It looks to be about 6 inches wide.

These are a little bigger than the prints we found down by the creek.

Wow.

That's a nice-looking footprint.

It's about 15 inches.

Maybe this is not the same animal,

and we're actually dealing with two creatures.

What I'm really curious about is the distance between this

just so that we can get an idea of stride.

Stride. Right.

Heel to heel.

That's almost 5 feet.

So if you think of a typical human that's 6-foot tall,

they would have about a 3-foot stride.

So, this thing could have been about 10 feet, potentially.

Exactly.

The fact that there is a left and a right impression of the same size

tells me that these belong to one animal.

The first thing I'm gonna do is take the edna sample before we contaminate it

and collect dirt from the very top surface.

Because as animals move around,

they're just constantly shedding DNA.

What will this end up showing us?

Edna is basically a tool that we use in conservation

to get a snapshot of anything that is coming through the forest.

And in a lot of cases, animals that are very elusive,

rare, that just don't show themselves,

this is a great way of confirming their presence in an area.

Right.

With the edna collected,

mireya and biko employ a powerful new hand held 3D scanner

to capture the image of the footprints.

All right. So now that we've collected the edna,

- it's okay to contaminate this area. - -Okay.

Because the print is embedded in the dark,

uneven soil of the forest floor,

mireya uses a scanning spray to create a finish

that will allow the scanner to pick up more detail.

The scanning spray adheres to the surface like spray paint.

However, the solution evaporates over the course of four hours,

going straight to gaseous form,

and will leave no traces or damage to the area of the footprint.

This is the most powerful scanner that we have ever used out in the field.

I'm more of a sticks and rocks kind of guy.

So all this tech is very alien to me.

Here we go.

The creaform hand held 3D scanner has four cameras and one projector

- and captures data at a rate of 1. - 5 million measurements per second.

While 3D scanning is widely used in industries such as aerospace,

healthcare and robotics,

it is also the perfect tool for preserving artifacts and evidence

by turning the footprints into a 3D composite image.

All right. The sooner we get these all scanned,

the sooner we can get it over to Bryce.

Overall, this could be a very big find

because of the correlation of the evidence.

Biko had a visual connecting to those prints.

If we're able to get a hit from the edna

that tells us what this was or what it wasn't,

we could have the information on a specific species

in an exact location at an exact time.

This could be huge.

- All right. - -Do you want to get out of here

and see if we can find anything else in this area?

Yeah, definitely. We've still got some daylight hours left.

It looks like there's more than one moving through here.

That's a lot of disturbance for just one set of tracks.

Seven miles from mireya and biko,

Russell makes his way towards the coordinates that Bryce sent him,

while also looking for any sign of whatever animal made the clicking noises.

I think... I think they're moving in a group.

More than one at least.

Back at the culverts, I found two sets of tracks.

Holy crap. That's toe prints.

But look at this. There's a second one.

You see the pad, the heel.

We have two separate types of tracks here.

Look at that. Hey, hey, hey, hey.

That looks like a track. Look at this.

Let me get some measurements on this thing.

Yeah, there's no claw prints in front of

that's not a bear track. That looks like a big toe.

Look how that's laid out through there.

That looks like the pad of a foot.

The ball of the foot, back to the heel.

Get a picture of this.

Fifteen, 16 inches.

It's pretty wide.

Right there, 7, 8 inches.

I'm gonna bet whatever made that clicking sound

made this track right here.

That's a pad. That's a flat-padded foot with a separated big toe.

You can see how these ferns are flipped over.

Some are dark green. Some are light green.

That's something stepping on it.

This thing is moving in that direction right through there.

I want to get a real quick cast while we got time.

What was that?

What as that?

Did you hear that?

Let's go. Let's go.

Keep your camera out there in case something moves.

Okay. Let's go. Let's go.

If I can get a visual on this thing,

it will be any footprint I can get off the soil.

Look at that. Look at that.

Right through here.

After hearing those sounds the other night,

I wasn't quite sure what it was.

But after seeing this print and hearing those sounds directly out in front of me

there's no question I'm on the right path.

Whatever was making that sound,

is doing its best to conceal where it's going.

When I think I'm hearing something and then it's quiet,

I start second guessing.

And out here, you can't do that.

I know I'm on the right track.

But I wonder how many of these creatures could be in the same area.

And if so, are they gathering in a much larger group somewhere?

- Hello. - Hi. How are you?

- Good. How are you? - Good.

Eight miles from Russell,

mireya and biko gather with a team of lidar tech specialists

sent by Bryce

to install a groundbreaking security system

fortifying their base camp against future intrusions.

So Bryce was telling me

you guys have had some interactions here in the base camp.

Well, that's right. I mean, both of our tents were virtually destroyed,

like the tent Poles were out.

There was a very sort of skunky, foul smell.

So something was definitely running around in here.

I mean, we do have trail cams set up all around the camp.

A couple of them were triggered,

but there was nothing discernible in them.

So you don't know which direction they came in

or how many of them they possibly were.

No idea.

So what exactly is the technology you guys are bringing?

So what we have is an array of lidar sensors,

utilizing lasers,

and they can track those moving objects

with a pan-tilt zoom infrared camera.

- In real time. - In real time.

Wow.

That's amazing because usually we have lidar,

but generally it takes hours for the data to process.

This is the first time that we've been able to use lidar

in real time.

Give us a few to set it up, and then we'll show you how it works.

- Animals, they're not stationary. - They're moving.

The fact that the cameras would set off

and point at whatever it is that it detected out there

is gonna really give us a huge advantage out here.

There we go. I got it.

We're gathering evidence, but we still don't really know

what's going on out here.

There's something moving past our camp.

Or are we in its territory

and it's coming in curious, investigating?

Hopefully, with this 360-degree lidar,

we'll be able to get some answers.

There you go.

While the team continues to set up the real time lidar system,

I got an email from Russ.

He recorded some strange sounds last night.

Back at the command center,

Bryce has downloaded the audio recordings from Russell for review.

All right, let's take a listen to this thing here.

Okay. Yeah, that's strange.

Let me play that again and just loop it.

It almost sounds like a little bit of wood knocking,

or maybe even some teeth chattering. I'm not sure.

Listen to this section right here.

It's almost like something you would hear in a zoo like in the bird section.

Right?

Like, listen to this.

That is so strange.

Because we get a lot of reports about vocalizations and howls,

even screams.

But to be honest, something like this, is pretty rare.

I've never heard anything like this,

so I'm a little out of my depth here.

So I would love to speak with an expert

who can just give me some context

as to not only what could have possibly made this sound,

but what they think it could mean as well.

Man, look at this view.

Well, well, well,

watch your step, this log is slippery.

You good?

I told you that log is slippery.

After tracking a possible pair of big foot,

Russell has traveled 1400 feet to the top of a nearby Ridge

to survey a valley for activity based on Bryce's recent car experiment.

I think this is a good spot.

Now it's pretty steep.

So for me to set up here, I have a great vantage point

because everything just drops out below me.

So I'll be able to watch through thermals.

This couldn't be a better spot to watch tonight.

Settle in tonight.

Pull out the thermals, see if we can see or hear anything.

I don't know if what Bryce saw

are the same two that I've been tracking.

If they're the same or if they're part of a larger group,

either way, if they come in this direction, I'm gonna be ready.

Right there.

And get into position.

All right.

From here we just sit and wait for nightfall.

Back at mireya and biko's base camp,

the lidar team has completed installing the security system.

Okay, so we have this all set up, all calibrated now,

ready for the protection of your base camp.

So what we're seeing on this screen

is that how the lasers are perceiving our camp?

That's absolutely right.

And the way that you've set it up,

this whole area is now basically secure.

Anything that moves through here,

we're going to pick up on it.

That's correct.

Mireya, why don't you walk into the center of this

and we'll actually see exactly how the lidar picks you up.

Yeah, sure.

This lidar sensor array sends laser pulses in 360 degrees

precisely rendering a three dimensional image of the environment.

And that's her right there.

- Wow. - Can you see me?

Due to the laser erased precision,

it can detect even the smallest

amount of movement inside the camp,

instantly triggering the thermal camera

to begin tracking the target in real time.

Biko, why don't you go out back into the center there.

All right.

While the lasers can reach up to 70 meters in every direction,

the thermal camera range for this surveillance

is contained to the boundary of their base camp.

It's a real time tracking device.

- That's right. - Incredible.

I like how he's walking like a big foot.

Yeah.

This addresses so many of our biggest limitations out here,

like at night, in this dense area,

it's obviously hard for us to... to see things.

And by the time we hear something,

it might be too late to get to it.

This is amazing.

Thank you so much for coming out here and helping us like this.

It's absolutely our pleasure.

We're gonna make our way back to the car.

We're all good to go and we'll see you later.

- Thanks so much, guys. - Pleasure to meet you guys.

Bye now.

We know that something's come in to explore a camp.

Let's just use it to our advantage.

We use this as a blind, throw the walls up.

And then we're going to be able to basically see from here

anything that moves out there.

That's speaking my language.

I've spent a lot of time hunting from blinds and it's super effective.

I think big foot knows this environment a lot better than we do,

but with all the tech we have and a little bit of woods craft

we've got a good damn chance of finding out whatever the heck's

been messing with our base camp.

With the walls of the tent up and secured,

mireya and miko use it as a blind

while monitoring the 360 degree real time lidar system.

It takes Patience.

Sitting in a blind always does.

What's the longest you've spent in a blind waiting for an animal?

Twelve hours.

- Did it come? - No.

How long have you sat in a blind?

It's really different for me when I'm doing research.

I don't use a blind because I don't want to be hidden.

- I want to be seen. - Totally different.

And then I want to be accepted into the group.

But in this case, I feel like we want to draw in anything

that wants to move through here.

- Yeah. - So by remaining hidden like this,

we might get some prey that moves in here.

- And hopefully the predator would follow. - Right.

Look. Look. Look. What was that?

Something just flew through here.

If we can see a bat moving through here

just imagine how well it would detect

a large, upright animal moving through our camp.

It's not a question of will it work? It's when.

I'm on my way to speak with a guy named Chris.

As mireya and biko begin to monitor their real time surveillance,

Bryce heads to the west edge of the target zone

to meet with a local who could provide more insight

into how these creatures move around these roadways.

I'm really looking forward to talking with this guy.

He seems really credible.

He works in cyber security.

He saw this creature cross the highway in a strange way.

And what he was describing to me sounded like a big foot.

And after going through my car experiment footage

and seeing those two creatures just kind of hiding

and hunkered down on the side of the road,

well, it just got me thinking.

How many other tactics are these creatures using to avoid being noticed?

Because if these creatures are gathering in this area,

at the numbers that I think they are,

then there's probably way more road crossings than we even realize.

So I'm really looking forward to speaking with this guy

and hearing about his encounter.

Thank you for taking the time to speak with us.

I understand you had an encounter.

Yeah, I was on a trip and I was driving back to Seattle.

There was a massive winter storm bearing down on the pacific northwest.

It was like one of the biggest ones in years.

So I was being careful and I was near centralia, Washington.

And there was about five lanes of highway on this stretch

is like no buildings, no houses.

It's very dark. It's just forests.

The median in this section of the highway is bigger than most.

It's probably like 5 feet tall that.

Is this a concrete wall?

It's a concrete wall, yeah, a concrete median.

And I saw this black object come out of the forest,

and it was like gliding across the highway, like floating almost.

It freaked me out. Like I've never seen anything move like that before.

And I've seen animals move like bears, you know,

and the way they kind of lurch when they're running.

It was literally just like gliding across the freeway.

Yeah.

And as I approached, it crossed my path,

hit the median and popped right over the median like effortlessly.

Almost like slither over the median

like just instantly kind of pop over it.

Chris said that this creature seemed to glide,

which reminded me of another witness that I spoke to named Alan

and his road crossing encounter with a creature

that moved in an unnatural way.

It was crawling across the road

like a spider.

It wasn't a man.

It was a sasquatch.

This could be more evidence of these creatures being able to move in ways

that helped them avoid detection,

and that would help to explain how they've been evading the team so far.

Now, are you still driving or have you slowed down at this point

and you're sort of turning your neck?

I slowed down and I was turning my neck

and I was looking out my window as I was passing it by.

"What is that?"

And these car's headlights that are heading southbound illuminated it.

So I can see it's this silhouette.

It must have been 8-feet tall because it was like towering above this median,

and it had that that classic silhouette, like that classic shape.

The big foot shape.

I saw that silhouette. I saw the head.

I saw shoulders. I saw arms.

But I also felt like there was this sense

of like this thing was really calm, whatever it was.

To be standing in the middle of the highway at 12:30am

during the biggest winter storm of like years.

A detail I find particularly compelling

is how when this creature crossed the median,

it stood on the other side with complete confidence and calm.

Almost as if it just knew nothing was gonna see it.

This feels more like the behavior of an experienced adult.

Now, when I compare that to the body postures of the creatures

that my thermals picked up while driving,

they seemed more cautious or wary.

Maybe they were younger and less experienced at hiding from humans.

All of that makes me wonder if creatures are gathering in this area

at different developmental stages.

I'm no expert in any of this by any means.

The only thing I would say is that the world

has more mystery than it does answers.

Well, listen, Chris, thank you so much for telling me your story.

- I really appreciate it. - Thanks. I appreciate it, Bryce. Yeah.

Have you switched to ir yet?

All right.

Stationed on a mountain,

Russell scans a valley overlooking the clearing.

Bryce believes the creatures he observed are heading toward.

There's a couple of places down there that are pretty interesting.

I like that clearing down there. There's...

There's a lot of stumps. If you can see that,

we're still holding heat from the sunshine today.

They still look like they are hot.

Keep an eye on that.

Up here on the hill

there's a couple of spots that are kind of warm.

But I'm wondering if any of those are just some animal laying there.

I would love to see something cross that span of open space.

It's interesting to scan from this high up.

To be able to see so much.

This little spot right here caught my eye.

It just looks odd.

Do you see this thing right here?

That right there.

It's out of place because right in the middle of the forest.

I don't know. It was... It almost looks like it's getting bigger.

But I can't tell.

Whoa!

Did you see that?

Back in 1847, a French Canadian painter named Paul Kane

was working on a series of projects for the Canadian government

that depicted the remote pacific northwest.

Now, during one of his long expeditions,

he ventured off into the wilderness

- in the hopes of capturing mount St. - Helens in all of its majesty.

But to do this he needed the help of the multnomah tribe

to guide him along the Lewis river.

But to his surprise, they flat out refused his request.

They informed him about a tribe they call the scookums.

A race of giant, hairy cannibals that lurked near the river

surrounding the mountain,

and these monsters were feared and respected by the tribe.

And the area was strictly off limits.

As a result, Kane was forced to find an alternate vantage point

because no one in the tribe was willing to risk their life.

So he can make a painting.

While scanning the valley below with his thermal camera

for a possible pair of big foot...

Whoa.

Russell is startled by a large moving heat signature.

Where did it go?

There's something down there.

It looked like something upright.

He's right in here. Right in the trees.

From this far away to see that over a mile away,

that was big.

Man. My heart is racing, man.

I'm not... seriously, I got goosebumps.

That thing stepped back into the trees.

This is right below us.

We've got to get down there.

Let's see if we can pack up and get a little closer.

Just keep pushing.

That's what I've been looking for.

Up until this point, I've been tracking what I believe

is a pair of creatures.

But this is the first visual I've gotten since landing in Washington.

And if we want to find out why this place is so important to them,

I need to get to where that heat signature is.

And that way it can verify that this is one of the creatures

that I've been tracking.

Are you ready?

I need one of these for my backyard.

Back at base camp, mireya and biko have spent hours monitoring

the 360-degree real time lidar array for any intrusions.

What would draw a creature like a sasquatch in is the question.

Well, if it's anything like a highly intelligent primate,

then curiosity would be, I think, your best bet as to why

that would move into an area where it knows...

Yeah.

- That we're here. - Yeah.

That makes sense because it's, you know,

dealing with an intelligent animal like that.

It's going to be a lot different

than dealing with something like a mountain lion,

or a coyote, which is just trying to make a meal out of whatever is there.

Yeah, I mean, primates are known to even detect when there's cameras,

like, trail cams around,

and they'll mess with them and play with them.

'Cause it's just something introduced into their environment.

What's that? Did you see that?

Little movements.

Something's coming.

Something's moving towards us, -it's coming. Zoom in.

I see it.

It just ran away.

You can't see it anymore.

How is that possible?

There was something moving towards here.

Did you just hear that?

That was two branches breaking right outside.

Something came from the creek side direction.

I'm gonna zoom out a little bit.

I wonder if whatever moved through there

was enough to trigger the thermal camera.

All right. Nothing triggered the camera.

So it must be outside the camera's perimeter.

Let's grab our lights and just head out.

Let's try to be quick.

Let's head towards the creek.

I think it's over this way.

There is something definitely moving out there.