“Hey, what is the most dangerous thing in the woods?”

A few years ago, I conducted a seminar on hog hunting and mentioned hog attacks.

This was the first question and the man asking later told me he assumed my answer would be boars and bears.

My answer however was quite different.

“People,” I said.

“People by far are the most dangerous thing in the woods.”

You could hear a pin drop in the room as the reality of that sank in and then people started raising their hands to share stories of dangerous human encounters in the great outdoors.

There are all kinds of dangers in the great outdoors and bigfoot creatures are not on the list. At least, that hasn’t been confirmed yet. Heck, the species hasn’t even been confirmed!

What is confirmed is areas of high alleged activity have a lot of dangerous human activity.

The things happening in the great outdoors involving people rarely get mentioned beyond local news coverage and it’s seemingly a non-topic for outdoors media. 

Check out these examples.

Decapitation Lines: Did you know there have been decapitation lines set in the Sam Houston National Forest?

Biking trails have been hit up with razor wire decapitation lines set to take out mountain bikers and anyone else who comes through the area. I’ve seen the photos and spoken with people in the area.

There is also a history of John and Jan Does found in the forest as well as a bizarre connection of more than 40 missing people in and around that area in Montgomery and San Jacinto Counties. Jerrie Dean founded the Missing Texas 40 to examine these disappearances.

Meth Labs & More Debauchery: Wildlands of our state are often used for drug-related activities. Check out this statement from the National Drug Intelligence Center.

“Drug trafficking organizations, criminal groups, and independent traffickers frequently produce and transport illicit drugs, particularly marijuana and methamphetamine, in or through federal lands. Consequently, several hundred thousand cannabis plants are eradicated and hundreds of methamphetamine laboratories are seized each year from National Forest System lands managed by the Forest Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture and lands managed by the U.S. Department of the Interior.”

Northern California, Oregon, Washington, East Texas, Oklahoma and Arkansas all have their share of this going on.

Florida Fishing Massacre: In July 2020, three people were murdered while on a fishing trip in Polk County right in the heart of Skunk Ape Country..

Sheriff Grady Judd, who has worked at the department since 1972, described the killings as a “massacre.”

“This is one of the worst crime scenes I have ever seen,’ Judd told me in an interview a week after the k billings.

Three friends had gathered to go fish at a remote location and had been friends for years. The victims had been savagely beaten and shot.

I’m not telling you these stories to scare you but to raise awareness. These stories are real and they are only a tiny fraction of the things going on out there. You can hear more of these stories on the Dark Outdoors podcast available on Spotify and all major podcasting platforms.

There is a lot of fear in the pursuit of natural enigmas like bigfoot creatures but the biggest danger is with people.

The Wildlife Journalist®

www.bigfootsouth.com