Backwoods Horror: Mysterious Disappearances in The Alaskan Triangle
A man disappears in the middle of a race. A woman walks into the woods and is never seen again. And a small town called Portlock swears there is something evil stalking them in the Woods.
Some say there’s something supernatural happening in the ‘Alaskan Triangle’
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SOURCES
Michael:
The Last Man Up | Runner's World
LISTEN: How did this Anchorage runner go missing in a popular mountain race?
Valerie:
Family still hopeful for Alaska Native woman who went missing
Seeking Justice: The women who vanished in Alaska in 2012
Granite Creek, Chugach National Forest - Recreation.gov.
Missing Woman: Yu'pik Inupiaq Valerie Sifsof Gone, Search Going on Two Weeks - ICT News
Cold case units focus on missing, murdered Indigenous women - The Washington Post
https://www.nativehope.org/missing-and-murdered-indigenous-women-mmiw/
https://www.newspapers.com/image/1063797650/?match=1&terms=valerie%20sifsof%2C%20shirt
https://www.adn.com/alaska-news/article/family-woman-who-vanished-still-fears-hopes/2012/09/16/
General Triangle/Alaska:
More People Go Missing In This Alaska Region Than In All Of America
Everything You Need To Know About The Alaska Triangle | Travel Channel
49 Incredible Facts About Alaska, the Last Frontier State
HISTORY OF THE ALASKAN TRIANGLE | The Proof is Out There (Season 2) | Exclusive
7 Unexplained Disappearances In The Alaska Triangle | Travel Channel
Plane Disappearances:
Aircraft missing in Alaska Bush remain among state's unsolved mysteries - Anchorage Daily News
Vile Vortices:
Vile Vortices | Medical Journals | 36564.
Deciphering the Mystery of Vile Vortices
Portlock:
The Story Of Portlock, The Alaska Ghost Town Allegedly Abandoned Because Of A 'Killer Bigfoot'
Hulu Doc – Travel Channel’s The Alaska Triangle, Episode 10
Hulu Doc – Travel Channel’s The Alaska Triangle, Episode 2
DNA Study Proves Bigfoot Never Existed
TRANSCRIPT
On July 3rd, 2012, 65 year old Michael LaMaitre laced up his sneakers in preparation for a wilderness race on Mount Marathon.
Marathon mountain sits Far at the southern tip of Alaska, nestled between majestic fjords, glaciers and the sea in a small port town named Seward.
Seward is just south of Anchorage,, and has barely 3,000 year-round residents.
Its biggest draw is its annual wilderness race, that Michael was preparing for. It’s been going on since 1915, and is basically a 3-mile out and back. Every fourth of July, hundreds of runners race up and down the peak.
If you think that sounds easy, it’s only three miles after all. well, it’s definitely not. For the first mile plus, participants have to run up pure incline, battling roots, rocks, cliffs, and dodging occasional encounters with bears. And then, when you finally reach the top…
You go from climbing a mountain to sprinting down a cliff. All the way, you’re fighting against trees, mud, snow and precipices that come out of nowhere, while the gravity of your own body urges you onwards. There have been a lot of injuries like broken bones and head traumas. One time, someone was impaled by a tree.
It doesn’t sound like my idea of a good time. But Michael LaMaitre’s [LA-MAY-TUR] was so, so excited for this race. He was a lively, outdoorsy guy who was always trying to find a new adventure, and Mount Marathon was on his bucket list. In 2012, he applied for a lottery slot to run at their annual bacchanal. He got in.
So On July 3rd, Michael and his wife, Peggy, got to Seward. They attended some mandatory safety meetings, picked up Michael’s racing number – 548 – and otherwise prepped for the big day.
Then, on July 4th, Michael donned a sweatband with black shorts and a black tee, kissed his wife goodbye, and around 3pm, joined over a hundred other runners at the starting line.
Michael's wife, Peggy, looked at the sky. The weather was really bad. Rainy and foggy, which made the whole course pretty slick. She wondered how that would affect the race, which was already hard on the athletes. But it didn’t stop the runners. Or the hordes of fans who were packed in tight around her near the trail.
The gun went off, and the runners were on their way. over the next few hours she watched as one by one they started crossing the finish line. But she didn’t see Michael. She hadn’t expected him to lead the pack, but when he still hadn’t finished by 6pm, three hours after the race started she got worried. Even if he got a cramp, surely he’d be able to walk the whole thing in 3 hours.
By 7:30, that worry turned to panic. She drove to the finish line with the couple’s dog and waited for Michael, watching as the other runners were changing their clothes and going home for the night. They were all on the mountain with her husband, surely someone must have seen him, but no one had.
It was starting to get dark, and it was really cold. Michael had started the race in just shorts, he must be freezing.
As she waited there, staring up at the rapidly darkening mountain, her dread kept getting stronger. She started honking her car horn, and yelling into the wind. Hoping that if Michael had gotten lost, he’d hear her and know where to go.
But he didn’t appear. He never would. And no one would ever be able to explain where he went.
Welcome To Heart Starts Pounding, a podcast of horrors, hauntings, and mysteries. As always, I’m your host Kaelyn Moore.
I’m not going to lie, you guys, There’s something strange going on in Alaska. I have listeners there, and yet. I never hear from any of you. What’s going on, are you ok?
Well, some people claim that there’s something supernatural about the area that leads to strange disappearances, and sightings of otherworldly creatures in the woods. That’s why they’ve called it The Alaskan Triangle
After all, people go missing in Alaska at a rate that’s two times higher than the rest of the country. So is it a vortex up there, or is something else going on? We’re going to get into all of that today.
But first, shout out to Eusebio who listens to our show while working as a custodian in a haunted middle school. Please I’m begging you guys to keep sending me your spooky jobs, hobbies, interests, whatever, and I’ll keep shouting them out.
Ok, let’s get back into it.
Hours before Peggy drove to the base of the mountain in search of Michael, a man named Tom was up on Marathon Mountain.
He was the midcourse timekeeper. In charge of monitoring the runners coming through the turnaround point as they finished their uphill slog, then headed back down the mountain again. He had a big time pad with him, which had a mat attached to it. When the runner’s feet hit the mat, a chip in their shoes recorded their mid-race split.
Tom had been doing this for 16 years, but it had been a long day. He’d been there with his team since the morning, and the bad weather had made the last few hours pretty unpleasant.
So 45 minutes after the last runner came through, Tom and his team packed up the timepad and water station. Then headed down the mountain. But they didn’t get far before they realized they were wrong.
There was still one more racer, and he was making his way up the mountain. It was Michael LaMaitre.
Michael was moving really slowly, but didn’t seem injured or anything. Tom told him he was almost at the turnaround point. It was only 200 meters away. In fact, Tom could even see it from where he stood. He pointed to it, and told Michael where to go. Then, they parted ways. Tom headed back to Seward, while Michael continued on. It’s believed that is the last time anyone saw Michael.
Based on this timing, Michael was expected to arrive in downtown Seward around 7:30 pm. He didn’t show up. So Peggy frantically called the number she had for the race officials, and begged them to get a search and rescue going.
They did, but not until around 10:30 that night.
By that point, the sun had set, and searchers had to comb the cold, mountainside in the dark. They didn’t get any infrared assistance until a State Trooper helicopter showed up sometime around 1 AM, and searched the area from the skies. The National Guard joined the efforts later that morning, while a 60-person search party scoured the area on foot, including Michael’s family, search dogs, firefighters, and local volunteers.
Even with everyone coming together, they couldn’t find him anywhere. They couldn’t even find any trace of him. No footprints, no strewn about clothing, nothing. If Tom hadn’t seen him with his own eyes he’d almost think that Michael never made it onto the mountain that day.
The search lasted for days, before transitioning from “rescue” to “recovery”. And investigations tend to slow down when that happens, when there’s not as much urgency to find someone before they pass away.
Shortly after, the State Troopers bowed out of the hunt, leaving local law enforcement and Michael’s family to keep looking on their own. Which they did. Michael’s daughter actually arranged for a private cadaver dog to sniff around the slopes. But there was nothing. As an Alaska State Trooper spokesperson put it, quote: “No clues. No trace. No trail.”
By the end of the summer, no one had found anything, and the LeMaitre family finally accepted that Michael was gone. In August, his daughter did one last hike up the mountain, and carved “I love you dad” into a rock at the turnaround point.
That carving might be the only trace that Michael LaMaitre left on that mountain.
So…the obvious question is – where did he go?
Some think it was just a tragic accident. Because the halfway timer was taken down, and no one was at the turnaround point, Michael simply missed it. He kept running, and didn’t realize his mistake until he was lost. It was cold that night, so he could’ve died of hypothermia while waiting for help or trying to find his way back.
Michael wouldn’t have necessarily known how to spot the halfway mark without an official there. He didn’t run the course ahead of time, like he was supposed to. This was a huge safety issue, and violated a race rule.
Others think he didn’t get lost per se. More like something happened that incapacitated him, like a heart attack or a bad injury. He could have fallen into a crevice or dense foliage area that searchers couldn’t get to.
Another theory is that Michael escaped. As in – faked his own death so he could run off and start a new life. But his family argued he would never do something like that. He was close to retirement, and had just bought a camper he intended on using to see more of the state. He was eager to spend more time with his family, not run away from them. Plus he only had the clothes on his back with him, there are easier ways to disappear if that’s what you want to do, we can side bar about that later if you’re interested….
Here are the facts I keep coming back to – Michael vanished on a course that hundreds of people had run that same day, a course being monitored by volunteers. There was an intensive search launched fairly quickly. And still, there was no sign of him at all.
Which brings me to another theory. Some people think where Michael disappeared is part of the mystery.
You see, Seward sits at the southern tip of what is known to locals as the Alaska Triangle – a region that covers 200,000 square miles of the state, and roughly extends between its three major cities – Juneau, Anchorage, and Utqiagvik [OOT-KEE-AAG-VICK].
It’s an area that’s considered strange and powerful, and is directly responsible for all kinds of bizarre things — like mysterious disappearances.
Lots of mysterious disappearances. I mean, it’s serious. Statistics vary a bit, but some sources say that since the 1970s, there have been around 20,000 missing persons there. That equates to double the national average. It’s also a huge number for a state that doesn’t actually have a lot of people living in it.
People go missing so often that sometimes, one person goes missing, and as the search for them intensifies, a separate person will go missing and it’s like no one notices. And as shocking as it may sound, that’s what happened in the case of michael lamayter. three days after he disappeared, someone else vanished from the same mountain range, about 60 miles north of Seward. There, a woman walked into the forest, and was never seen again, but she was not afforded the same level of media attention.
Though Just like Michael, no one knows where she went.
More, after the break.
Three days after Michael Lemairtre vanished in the wilderness, 43-year-old Valerie Sifsof was on a camping trip
Valerie was an Alaska Native who grew up in the state, but spent time living in Seattle as an adult. In 2012, she moved home, and settled in Anchorage with her boyfriend.
She was an outdoorsy person, so it probably wasn’t a shock to anyone when she and her boyfriend planned a camping trip in the Kenai (Key-Neye) Mountains that summer – at a place called Granite Creek.
Now, Granite Creek lies deep within the Kenai mountains, about 20 miles away from the nearest civilization. It sits next to a rushing river completely surrounded by thick pine trees and tall brush. Mountain peaks out from above the trees, but when you're at the campground, you can’t tell exactly where you are in the mountain range. If you got lost, your best bet would be to follow the river and hope it took you through a town before the elements got you.
The couple set out on July 7th, making the short journey from Anchorage to the camping site – and that afternoon, when they reached their destination, they got into a fight. They eventually made up, or at least smoothed things over enough to enjoy some drinks around their campfire.
But around midnight, they fought again. This time, it was bad enough that Valerie stormed off.
She headed towards the outhouses, where a mix of other tents and campers were. She had No keys, no ID, no phone. She just walked off into the darkness, through the thick pines and dark brush.
Her boyfriend understood she wanted to cool off. They’d had fights before, and it was always better to give her space afterwards. But when she still hadn’t come back by 2 AM, he went to look for her around the grounds. She was nowhere to be seen. He waited at their site, and eventually fell asleep. He woke up again at 4 AM, and Valerie was still gone.
He decided she must have somehow gotten a ride back to Anchorage. So later that morning he left and drove home. But she wasn’t at their place, either. He went back to Granite Creek again multiple times over the next few days, looking for her. Driving back and forth looking for any trace of her, but each time he came up empty.
Finally he reported her missing to the State Troopers on July 11th, four days after she was last seen.
Valerie’s boyfriend and family scoured miles of woods around the camping site, along with law enforcement, military, and other volunteers. But she had been missing for four days by that point, and they didn’t know if she had let's say fallen within minutes of walking off, if she had been walking the whole time and was maybe 100 miles away, nothing. But also the State Troopers didn’t have the funding or the manpower to check every possible area. So the search was neither immediate nor robust, and they didn’t find anything
Then, months after she disappeared, a kayaker was floating across the surface of Granite Creek, near the campsite where Valerie went missing. And there, bobbing in the water was a green tank top. They reported the find, and officials confirmed it was Valerie’s. Not only that – she was wearing it when she went missing, layered under a black DKNY hoodie.
Then, in October, her family scoured the area around the creek yet again. About a half mile from Valerie’s campsite, they found something – a swath of black fabric, stuck in a log jam. They didn’t touch it. Instead, they called it in to officials. When it was finally pulled out and examined…authorities realized it was a significant find.
It was Valerie’s black, DKNY hoodie.
It seemed like the searchers and Valerie’s family were getting close to locating her, maybe the clothes were acting like breadcrumbs leading them to her location. But they didn’t find anything else after that. No more clothes, and no Valerie. And to this very day, she still hasn’t been found.
So, again, the question is – where did she go?
One theory is that someone attacked or abducted her. Alaska has one of the highest rates of violence against women of US states. And Indigenous women are even more vulnerable, which Valerie was. According to the Urban Indian Health Institute, murder is the third leading cause of death for Native women. For reference, for not native women, murder isn’t even in the top 10 causes of death.
And that’s only for the bodies of the native women that are found. There are many more unsolved cases, where Indigenous women go missing and are never heard from again.
Valerie’s father has a different idea – he thinks she fell into the river. The current was fast, which could have torn off some of her clothes, and pulled her downstream before she could fight against it.
According to his theory, his daughter wasn’t killed by a person, she was taken by Alaska.
Some might interpret this literally. Like I said, a lot of people go missing in Alaska. Partly because it’s a huge state that’s mostly covered in wilderness. A third of its land is part of the Arctic Circle, it contains over half of America’s national parks, and twenty of the country’s highest peaks. In fact, a huge portion of the state is only accessible by water or air.
There’s also frequent extreme weather like avalanches, blizzards, whiteouts, or strong winds. All of which can confuse hikers and cause accidents. There are a lot of predators, too. Like bears, wolves, and so on.
But when people fall into a river, officials tend to know where to look, rivers often drop people in the same areas. And yet Valerie was never found.
So yes, the extremeness of the Alaskan wilderness does help explain Alaska’s very high missing persons rate. But it doesn’t necessarily account for some of the more inexplicable cases. The ones that are so strange, they defy explanation — like people going missing in the middle of crowds, or on cruise ships. Locals who knew the area well have vanished on their way to school or while going about daily tasks.
Like Anthony Nuzzi, a traveling nurse who was staying in Anchorage in the summer of 2001. He didn’t show up for work one day, and his Jeep was found about 12 miles outside of the city. The night before he went missing, he was seen on surveillance buying some items at a gas station. But then he vanished without a trace, and has never been found.
Then there’s the World War II veteran, Leonard Lane, who was enjoying some Fourth of July festivities in Fairbanks in 1995. He just…disappeared in the middle of the crowd. In broad daylight. No one saw where he went, or what happened to him. The case is still unsolved.
In the summer of 2019, a woman named Shanna Oman (oh-mon) was visiting a friend in Fairbanks when she vanished. She left a house she was visiting around 12:30 AM, leaving behind her dog and money. No one knows why she walked into the wilderness that night, and her body has never been found.
These disappearances are eerie. But there’s more, and it’s downright terrifying. In the Triangle, it’s not just people who go missing. Bigger stuff does, too. Like planes.
In January 1950, a passenger plane known as the Douglas C-54D, was carrying 44 people when it took off from Anchorage. The aircraft was bound for Minnesota. Around two hours after takeoff, the plane crossed into the Yukon, in the easternmost part of the Alaska Triangle, which briefly connects with Canada.
This was the point where something seemed to go wrong.
The plane’s crew spoke to air traffic control around this time. They noted that there was some ice accumulating on the plane’s wings, and they were dealing with turbulence.
But that was basically it. They didn’t mention any other emergencies, and they didn’t really seem panicked. They were supposed to check in with air traffic control thirty minutes later. That was the schedule – contact every thirty minutes throughout the whole journey.
They didn’t do their next check in. And no one ever heard from them again.
They never made it to their destination, and a search started almost immediately. Both the US Air Force and Canadian Authorities worked together, scouring the region in a grid pattern where the plane issued their final transmission.
But the conditions were merciless. There was heavy snow, ragged winds, and a lack of visibility that hindered their efforts. Four rescue planes actually crashed during the search.
They looked for a few weeks, before being rerouted to another incident and abandoning the search. The families of the victims were left to continue efforts on their own. Which they did. Each summer, they organized search parties in the region to look for signs of their loved ones.
But to this day, no part of the aircraft, or anyone who was inside of it, has ever been found.
Which is bizarre, right? It was a large plane, full of people. And there hasn’t even been a wing or piece of shrapnel found. Nothing. It was flying through the skies and then – poof! Gone.
These weird disappearances are why so many people think that something strange is happening in Alaska, something beyond the natural world. They’ll tell you that Electronic readings have actually recorded magnetic irregularities in the Triangle and surrounding areas. They might say that the Alaska Triangle is one of the world’s 12 limited vile vortices, a place where things can be transported into a different dimension.
But some people believe that there’s something evil patrolling the woods in alaska, and they look to the story of Portlock as evidence of that.
More, after the break.
In southern Alaska, grazing the western edge of the Alaska Triangle, is a town called Portlock.
Back in the day, it was a small fishing village on Port Chatham Bay. It’s very remote, and was first discovered by a captain in 1786, who was really impressed with the place. Who wouldn’t be? It was gorgeous, nestled between the ocean and mountains. It was also near a swatch of calm water that was perfect for salmon fishing.
Despite it being such an ideal spot, no indigenous tribes lived there. They inhabited the areas nearby, but Portlock was like a dead zone. As if they knew something about it, and understood the best way to handle that area…was to stay away.
Eventually, it became clear why.
In 1900, an American firm set up a salmon cannery there, and a settlement blossomed around it. But only five years into this endeavor, a mysterious incident occurred
A short, vague logbook entry from 1905 is the only clue we have about what happened there. A cannery supervisor had hastily scribbled a report, stating that the cannery workers fled in fear. They now refused to come back to work. There’s not much information about why they left. Just something about – a threat that came from the woods.
The settlement of Portlock was surrounded by forest. Dense, regal greenery that sat in the shadow of stunning snow capped mountains. What could have emerged from that forest that scared the employees that badly?
It didn’t say what the threat was, so we don’t know. And it seemed like it went away, since according to the log book, the workers went back to the cannery the following season. For the next few years, all was well. Whatever it was seemed to have retreated into the wilderness it came from.
But at some point, it came back. When it did, people began to die.
In 1921 or 1931, there are conflicting dates, a man named Andrew Kamluck was working at a logging site near Portlock. There was some heavy duty machinery lying around, but he was busy with a manual task. Every so often he stopped to wipe sweat from his brow, and sit on a bench for a moment.
Well, one evening, Andrew didn’t return from work, and another logger was sent to go search for him near where he was last seen working. And what he found, he couldnt’ explain
Andrew’s body was lying crumpled by the bench where he normally took his breaks, and a huge gash covered the back of his head. He probably hadn't seen whoever, or whatever did this to him.
Next to him about 10 feet away was a bunch of heavy logging equipment covered in blood, which confused the logger who found him. That equipment was far too heavy to be lifted by one man. But where it was sitting it didn’t look like it had fallen on him either.
And worst of all, while the logger was inspecting the area, he got the overwhelming feeling he was being watched. The back of his neck tingled and the hair stood up, as if someone was deep in the forest, their eyes boring into the back of his skull, waiting for the perfect time to strike.
The man gathered his things and ran to go notify Andrew’s family and their boss, and as he was leaving, he thought he caught a glimpse of a giant brown bear, maybe a grizzly, off in the distance. So it was REALLY time to leave.
And Andrew wasn’t the only local who reported seeing a giant brown bear around this time. There were multiple sightings near a mine. But the people in the area swore that it wasn’t a bear, it was far too big, they said.
Then, a gold miner went missing after leaving for work. He was never found.
That was just the beginning.
Over the next decade, people kept disappearing. Plucked from the village during the night, or while they were out working or doing chores. Some were never seen from again. But some were found utterly eviscerated, with their limbs torn off and twisted and their faces in tatters. Not eaten, just mangled. Like something had killed them, then furiously ravaged their corpses.
At one point an entire hunting party went missing during an outing up the mountain.. After it rained, their shredded bodies floated down the mountainside, and reunited in a local lagoon. There, the townspeople found them bobbing in the current.
Each time a body was found, the remains were horrific, and there was no indication of how they’d gotten that way. It’s the bear! Some would shout, but others knew this wasn’t a bear. The victims’ wounds didn’t have the same markings as a bear attack, and it wasn’t the season or typical bear behavior to go rogue and attack SO many civilians.
It wasn’t until another hunting party found something in the woods, that they could confirm they weren’t dealing with a standard predator. It was something else.
They said that during their hunt, they found prints that they felt must belong to the predator. But they didn’t look like animal prints, they looked like human prints, and they were massive, 18 inches in length.
That was enough for the residents to start taking some real precautions. Children were told not to go outside when it was foggy, or it would get them, too. When they snuggled in at night, they stared at the dark sky outside their windows. Wondering if something would reach in through their windows and pluck them from their beds.
Children, it seemed, listened to these warnings. But some adults didn’t.
It’s not known exactly when a local named Tom Larsen got into trouble. But at some point during the panic, he was walking through the forest, intending on gathering some wood for his fish traps.
He had a specific spot in mind, and his route there took him along the beach. There, the waves gently lapped against the sand. Sent in by the light current, protected by the snow capped mountains that lined the bay. A light, cool breeze whipped against his face, chapping his cheeks. He might’ve stopped to enjoy the scenery, or inhale the fresh air…
If he hadn’t seen something that made his blood run cold.
There, standing at the edge of the water, was a figure. It was massive and hairy, and not like anything he’d ever seen before. Tom didn’t know what it was. But he was sure it was dangerous, and that it did not belong on that beach.
He slowly backed away from this creature, before he bolted. Instinct told him he needed a weapon. Now. So he raced back the way he came. He shot into his home, grabbed his rifle, and booked it back to the beach.
The thing was still there. Only when Tom raised his gun, it turned to look at him.
For a moment. The two species gazed at one another. A man, terrified, with a lethal weapon in his grip. And…something else. A monster. Or a demon. Simply returning Tom’s stare.
And for some reason, Tom couldn’t pull the trigger. It was like some kind of force held his finger in place. Refusing to let him fire. Maybe it was Tom, telling himself to wait before destroying something he didn’t understand. Or maybe it was the creature, using its power to control Tom.
At least, this is the story that Tom told, as he stared into his beer at a local bar. A group was around him, hanging onto every single word he said.
But one of the people in the group was a young woman who lived in the area, and her eyes went wide as she heard the story. See, Her father was Alutiiq [AH-LEW-TICK], one of the eight Alaskan native tribes that still inhabited the state, and he had told her about the Nantiinaq [nan-tee-nuck].
The Nan-Tee-Nuck was a half-man half-beast. Another local tribe called it the Dena’ina [DUH-NIGH-NAH], which means “those who steal people”
It’s a large, ape-like creature that walks upright on two legs and is covered in dark fur. It announces itself through a series of yells and whistles, and is between 8 and 10 feet tall, and 6 feet wide.
She was told that’s why none of the tribes in the region lived in that specific area, even though the fishing was so good. There was something in the woods that didn’t want them there, and they had no choice but to respect its wishes.
Was this the creature that tormented Portlock for years, she wondered?
In 1949, this torment stopped. Because the entire town, seemingly overnight, just got up and left. Some claim this was actually a gradual, natural exodus. The economy slowed down, and it was too remote for modernity. But others say they were driven out by the creature
A village elder who used to live in Portlock told the Anchorage Tribune it was the latter. She said the people there had been exhausted by fear, too scared to go into the woods anymore. And the woods was where the timber was, it was where the industry was. If people could no longer go there, they couldn’t support their families. So they had to leave.
Portlock has been abandoned ever since. A place that once had a school, post office, homes and businesses, has now been reclaimed by the natural world. The structures are gone, with just bits of machinery lying around the forest floor, covered up by the stubborn greenery. There’s just one dilapidated cabin that’s still standing in the thicket, a last piece of shelter from the creature of Portlock.
And now we have the 90 year old tale, which may have bent and twisted over time, becoming more like folklore than hard facts with the years.
That is, until someone saw the creature 11 years ago.
In 2014, a girl named Sarah, her friend Ray, and Ray’s brother were at Lake Iliamna, getting their boat set up for a camping trip. They left the dock and were on their way across the lake.
Sarah looked around her. Soaking in the gorgeous lakeside scenery. But then she was suddenly ripped out of this peaceful moment.
There was something on the shore.
a figure. Sarah couldn’t really see it clearly. But she knew it was strange. It was massive. About 9 or 10 feet. And it was covered in dark, long fur. It sent a shiver down her spine, and sparked a feeling of dread. But it didn’t chase after her and her friends. no.
It watched. The same, cold stare that can be felt from a mile away, the one the people of Portlock had felt almost 100 years before.
She was about to yell – “What is that?” But her friend Ray beat her to the punch. He, too, was staring at the creature. They all were. Their eyes were locked on this thing
But then it did something that no one had reported before. It just… vanished. Like a switch had flipped. It just suddenly wasn’t there anymore.
Sarah and Ray shared a look. They lived in the area and had heard the stories – that thing had to be a Bigfoot. It was perhaps this knowledge that compelled them to look closer. I mean, if it actually was a Bigfoot, they had to see if they could get proof. Right?
The group steered the boat back to the landing spot, and got out so they could poke around.
Sarah traipsed through the thick foliage. Peering through leaves, and stepping over logs. The towering trees cast shadows all around her. Tricking the eye into thinking the beast was lurking nearby. Threatening to step into view at any moment, and unleash his ferocious, brutal strength.
But Sarah didn’t see it again. Instead, she saw something, in the mud and grass of the forest floor, a huge footprint. Actually, there were a lot of them. All around the spot where she had seen the creature. The prints looked like human feet, only way bigger. They were a tangible, horrific reminder of the monster that had been there, only moments before.
As soon as Sarah saw those prints, her curiosity dissipated. I
Her gut told her to stop looking for this creature. And to be grateful she hadn’t found it.
All around Alaska, there are signs of the Hairy Man, often just referred to by its more famous name, Bigfoot. Many of these are glimpses of a tall, hairy beast lurking in the woods or ducking behind trees. Or hikers who come across a sprawling set of footprints, made by something huge, that walks upright. A lot of these sightings come from local Alaskans. People who have seen plenty of bears and wildlife.
And when they tell these stories, they're saying that what they saw defied all logical explanation.
So far though, that’s all the Hairy Man has left behind. Stories. Whispers of its presence. Entrails of its victims. It lurks on the periphery of our vision, but it never shows its full hand.
That’s why some think this creature is part of the shifting, unknowable energy of the Triangle itself. Alaskan natives have spoken of shape shifting monsters for centuries, they’ve known about the dangers of the woods.
And some say that if there really were these creatures in the woods, and there really was something supernatural in the backwoods of Alaska, wouldn’t we know about it by now? With all of the cameras and cell phones and science we have?
Well here’s a gentle reminder that If we can’t find a 44 person passenger plane in the Triangle’s wilderness – what else can’t we find there? If someone can still take a step into the dark woods only to never remerge again, and for no trace of them to ever be found, then what else is out there that we can’t find?
That’s all I have for you today. Join me back here next week for another mystery, this time a morbid medical mystery. We’re diving into Spontaneous Human Combustion.
I’ll see you then, and until next time, don’t go into the woods at night.
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