Survivorman | Directors Commentary | Episode 6 - Bigfoot Nordegg | Les Stroud

[Applause] so this I gotta say this is my music oh it's the original that's right because it was survivor man Bigfoot we thought well turn that down a bit we actually decided to go a little retro with the music and go back to the original survivor man theme because I had updated it with new stuff and that harmonica blasting and things so that's it it's alright oh I'm speaking myself no this is the newer thing okay so clearly what I thought was let's go with a new thing maybe that's what we did so are you tagging my memory now but all of this artwork you just watched on that opening was created by a man I can't actually say his name because he wasn't supposed to be working for me was he was moonlighting doing this stuff for me because he works for a major Network I wish I could cuz he's a genius and he's done all of my openings of all my shows to date and for Survivorman bigfoot we wanted something special and so all of that graphic work and that we just we just we spent the money on them and worked with them you know to make sure this was gonna be a very cool opening and get you going on stuff so this this is for the Survivorman bigfoot series and the directors commentaries I'm gonna walk you through these one step at a time but I'm gonna for this series I'm gonna start at the beginning episode it makes a lot of sense for beyond survival and a cherry pick and Survivorman I'm gonna cherry pick based on what you want but for Bigfoot I'm gonna start at the beginning here because the whole year was an incredible journey so I'm starting out knowing nothing other than reading and things that I've done a lot of books and stuff like that being a skeptic but being very open minded and remember that was the whole key to surviving Bigfoot remaining a skeptic but remaining open-minded the whole time all right let's watch oh you're joining me it's morning so I got my morning coffee no wine for now yet it's not 1 o'clock yet if you don't like me I can't wait well you've seen me eat before so I'm gonna eat in front of you I'm goin I'm goin crunchy granola this morning with some bananas and yogurt and granola little dash of my own homemade maple syrup a little dash of vanilla because it was plain yogurt not like vanilla yogurt and yeah so no bacon and eggs this morning crunchy granola breakfast don't mind me I'm gonna sit with you guys have breakfast and watch the rod man Bigfoot episode 1 for 25 years of training survival survival practice survival home survival essentially this that means that they here I've had to exist pretty much that same manner know the legendary cuz it was the beginning of the use of aerials like the drawings for aerials instead of hell waters it wasn't I did that on survive stay hidden so where do I stand on the subject matter I've seen my share the unexplained out here what I'm a skeptic I need to see it to believe it and that's what I'm here to do now you get as close as I can if that's possible to the legend why did I say so Squatch in a big book because it's been postured that whatever this phenomenon is whatever these beings are species whatever is going on Bigfoot's a little bit of a derogatory term I wanted to start out in a respectful manner Sasquatch is a name given to them by an Aboriginal community Aboriginal peoples in Canada and sound a quarter and I'll comment on Finding Bigfoot and the other shows that are around as we go along on this series I'll start by saying only that I've hated the phrase sorry guys but I hate it when we say let's go squatching it just diminishes anything at all any way at all of being serious about the subject matter so i don't go squatching and I never say that's a Squatch not gonna do that but the name Sasquatch seemed respectful I laid this opening out for you guys because I knew this was gonna ruffle some feathers bottom line is I've seen some crazy stuff out there heard some crazy stuff up there had some crazy experiences define crazy out of the normal and I'm not suggesting paranormal I'm saying just out of the normal it's not a there's not a bear squirrels doing that you know and I was looking for explanations potential that Sasquatch is an explanation attention this is a remote area in the foothills of Alberta uh northern paradise criss-crossed with trapping lines survey lives and access roads for hunters I got listed the help of a Bigfoot tracker named Todd standing all right Todd standing hmm what a controversial figure in the in the world a Bigfoot he just does I think probably the most controversy short of that I didn't want to say his name but the guy who does all of the hoaxes and he takes out a rubber Bigfoot and I'm not gonna give him respect by calling it by even mentioning his name short of that guy Todd standing is the most controversial figure in the field of Bigfoot research it's going to go on and on here he is controversial but I think him and I got along because I hold him to bear I don't let him get away with suggestive practices let's just watch he claims to have had multiple interactions with what he believes to be the legendary creature known scientifically as Gigantopithecus he says they're here I want him to prove it to me thousands of examples of anecdotal references including confirmed DNA evidence are not enough for the world to accept their existence and it's not enough for me either I need to see one [Music] start there all of these different Bigfoot researchers come from different angles and directives and for Todd it was all about Gigantopithecus it probably still is if I call him up right now he probably saved ya less that's what I'm searching I'm trying to prove Gigantopithecus so that was my introduction into the possibilities here and I'll try not to be coy about things but let's just be there I don't even as I sit here now I don't have an answer for you but there's a lot of possibilities in Gigantopithecus is one and what did you I gained a Pittacus I try Wikipedia be it there's two ways to ask the question number one easy way you believe in Bigfoot that's one way to ask the question there's another way to ask that same question do you think it's possible that a bipedal April a bipedal hominid species could exist around the world in extremely remote locations or not so remote but thick enough be responsible for thousands of anecdotal references from rock-throwing stew vocalizations to sightings to suppose a film footage do you think that could exist that's a different question that doesn't require belief or faith it requires answers that are scientifically based right so again being a skeptic wanting to get to the bottom of things that was the point I made right here in this first show I don't think I've ever made it again but I'll make it now if I'm gonna party with you and some guy comes I'm gonna kid you believe in Bigfoot conversations over if you want to take it serious and say listen man like what about this whole Bigfoot thing like what's you know I know I don't get it but but it's clear you know that in saying that to me that you've got you know an open mind then the conversations on and I I mean both kinds all the time the whole thing is that it's how we approach the subject matter and what I like to say in that situation is look you can do that if you say okay is it possible based on thousands of anecdotal references and all kinds of people you might respect saying hey man I don't care what you think I know what I saw that these these creatures are out there this species this phenomenon whatever it is that's a different question to ask and what I say now is you got to decide you want to take the red pill you want to take the blue pill because if you take the red pill beware it's a slippery slope and you got to have a real open mind to see where it goes it requires analysis of thousands of examples of evidence based on years of research it requires an open mind with a skeptics eye it requires throwing away preconceived notions and starting at Ground Zero well for me this is ground zero of proving or debunk the reality the myth of the wild man of the forest some I want to point out here this is totally off Bigfoot um in filming technique and so on I think this was the first time I used a good friend of mine named Ian all J to do my my aerial drones if you're into drones and you're into drone footage and you're let's say you're into film producing in that I I actually came up with a philosophy on this because man it's guys are expensive in the beginning there were thirty five hundred dollars a day and you had ISM it was a maximum three days and you know that was very awkward for Survivorman to use these outside drone operators and I started putting the math together it's like wait a minute so the unit costs me at that time five thousand dollars now they're like you can get killer stuff for six hundred bucks then why don't I just buy one of the units hire a young filmmaker say here take the drone become great at it come out with me to Peru and we're gonna shoot a show that's what I did and this was to the point and I started with one fellow and didn't work out so well started with so this is a good buddy money in and the beauty of it is the price of drones got keeps getting so cheap that with a with a television show budget that I would have had for Survivorman Bigfoot I mean some of the little phantoms in that they were almost disposable which meant I could ask him to get amazing like go close to the tree they'll close to the waterfall I don't care if you crash it we'll buy another one eight hundred bucks you know things like that um we're part of my filmmaking just know the comment number one come at number two I want to say is if you notice in the in the opening scenes there I do a good job of kind of talking to you like this now there's it when you're filming yourself is a little camera trick when you're filming yourself this is how you want to look when you're talking to the audience but you know what most people do they look this is how they talk to the audience yeah so ya know I like I'm here and and I'm doing this saying and it doesn't look right does it it doesn't look right this looks right this doesn't look right and I kind of mastered the ability within myself even though I had to have the little lens thing flipped out so I could make sure I was in the frame of not of really resisting doing this because this is distracting you need to have people hear you talk to them and see you talk to them like this yeah this was a little filmmaking tip that I wanted to share let's get back to Bigfoot yowee Yeti Sasquatch Scugog Koosh tikka oma Bigfoot I can come out here full of skepticism that's fine but if I I do believe that if you bring out here the intent that you're up against something you know yeah I hear up against them you versus them then it's the wrong way to approach it that's a key philosophy I keep for survivalists - it's never been about me versus wild and survival it's always been about working with the forest going with my blow of nature understand how to survive you and I'm trying to exactly the same situation with researching Sasquatch go with the flow fire has respect humility and paying attention and it's no different in the quest for Sasquatch and some sort of connection or expiry Todd was a bit of an enigma he often on had an open mind Oh mm I'll get back to talk here's the here's the thing that happened to me a show in Alaska I was distracted by noises in the bush about a hundred yards away if you watch me in these scenes you can see times when I momentarily look off into the bush right there Fraser right there you see that was really happening I was hearing things in the bush big things I'm thinking oh crap and it's a grizzly that's what I'm thinking but I kept hearing on a number I just don't acknowledge it to camera because I was busy filming Survivorman it's you know if something was gonna happen no get it when it happens okay I was wondering what the sound was I'm used to sounds in the bush so I wrote it off as a moose or a bear see I keep stopping right there looking off to my right what's going on and carried on shooting the scenes of making a graph there again look off same direction that's bad for my shelter eventually I finished capturing the footage I need it for say again looking there's four times now and shut off the cameras as I walk towards my shelter I heard a hair-raising make five extremely loud sound that could only be described as something like a great ape grunting at me I've heard many bears grunt and this was nothing like that what's more it repeated at four more times very loud while I stood frozen in my step when I made my move to grab the camera it took off through the bush and sounded like a freight train braking trees as it covered many hundreds of yards in seconds those sounds have haunted me to this day so I've told that story before you tell you how I got into doing the survive man Bigfoot I was actually when it happened on this shoot I thought I'm not telling anybody I'm not saying anything this is about survivor man I was still very big and filming that um I was a bit of a hawk flying about me right now I got a pair of hawks that living behind the house there anyway I just thought no that'll distract everybody from Survivorman and let's face it I was all about survivor man and teaching the skills and filming that show and so I just kept it him and in a couple of years later I was doing an interview on Opie and Anthony in New York and one of the dudes there goes hey man you ever seen Bigfoot out there and for whatever reason maybe it's because I never bullshit when I'm on an interview I always just say it like it is you know what I'm gonna answer him and say well I'll tell you what happened and then I told him this story well that kind of ignited a little mini firestorm of people going on on about man big for ya and then I thought well thinking like a you know and producer I thought man well two brands Survivorman brand and Bigfoot brand because he's a brand even he needs a better agent but he's a brand means a better stronger PR rep too would be super cool and and I presented it to the networks and they loved it and this was the first episode and this opposite direction over there so we've come to a bit of a high ground and by virtue of your whoops we've said hey just letting you know we're here alright yeah basically that's it you know this was the beginning this is my introduction in ship all the different Sasquatch researchers including Todd we exist on a lot of conjecture you know from one thing and we'll just we'll go with benefit of the doubt for now if they are responsible for these whoops and it's not Ravens and crows and birds and things how do we even know what they're saying maybe when we're doing that we're like doing something aggressive I don't know that I want to be aggressive towards something that's ten foot tall weighs 1,500 pounds can pop my head off with one hand hooping has been referenced to hundreds of times throughout the world when it comes to Bigfoot stories Todd has a theory about markings found throughout this area where two trappin brothers claimed to have been scared out of the forest after visual contact with a Bigfoot they refused to return they also refused he feels that the systematic and seemingly uniform breaks and trees are signs of communication from gigantic Ithaca they were marking territory for the trappers part acceptance part warning you know I've broken a lot of branches doing survival has had to bend over a lot of trees broke break a lot of trees cut a lot of trees yes and I'm just thinking about this and I'm just you know it would need to be a powerful hand to grip that snapped some breaks like that so I keep trying to excuse this by snow saying well if there was like three feet of snow crystallized on the top and the wind comes in and then snap right but that's not usually how it works you know the trees can bow over and they might just sort of stay like that I've seen that over and over again to be just out in the open like this you know and to be snapped like that yeah it's like it takes hands I'm just actually starting to really feel that now thinking of the different trees I've seen and being able to all of a sudden I feel like I can recognize the difference between a tree that is purposely broke broken off and and put over versus there was lots of snow on the top you know something I did leave out here though I just didn't think about it till later was salsa sometimes in these situations when there is three four feet of snow and it's actually a trapper who comes along and breaks the tree off when marking his own betrayal sort of thing in cases tracks get snowed in later so natural occurrence at all they're too systematic yet I have to be careful not to fall prey to the power of suggestion yeah that's a big not at all strong man and there's a lot and do that power suggestion we're prison nothing threes - no I didn't gonna have specially we'll get into this on another show especially something called paranoia which is seeing faces and things so he's seeing Bigfoot in the trees and oh that's another story you guys sent on a lot of clips about you know can you see there's Bigfoot in behind you we've gone into the high-def footage the original content to look at it because we've been intrigued ourselves and we have some answers it's gonna be cut marks in it ax marks saw marks and again now we're looking at the age of this as well don't forget the age yeah that's not a moose break that's not snow either again if it was snow it would be like that because I've seen this it would be March 5th and it's a big heavy snowfall the next day it goes up to plus five the rain comes in but then the wind comes in all those heavy trees just like whoa and then you hear snap crash bang but there's always 10 20 30 50 hundreds of them all down not just one one thing I did do with Todd as well as a grape to survive on Grizzlies are massive yeah here's talking about the survivability out there by bigger creature law supposes making weird sounds don't know what's going on anyway original footage from Todd standing so I'll show this what was it gonna say I was gonna say that when I go out there with all these different Bigfoot researchers I have to give them the due respect they're allowing me to be there to go to their areas whether they're you know faking it or whether they're real whether they're delusional or whether they're they've got something really serious going on I would just give them the respect any including Todd standing again a controversial figure in the world of Bigfoot I would still give him the respect you know what the guy's got me out here and anyway moron Todd but the reality is I mean he gets out there deep and dark and far where a lot of other researchers won't go this is his original footage that intrigued intrigued me in 2000 people won't swallow that's four days into a remote region of the Rocky Mountains less than 12 hours after a freak snowstorm that provided ideal cover Todd was able to record this footage here's the thing about Todd standings footage and there's Scott for three or four clips like this including one one thing is for sure that's really quite good the last one he got which I never had you so you can see what I see we're left with only one of two possible answers right either Todd has set this all up and it's some kind of elaborate hoax and he's a fraud and this is a fake and he's dedicated his whole life to perpetrating this hoax or it's not a fake it's real so what if this is real there's no other way to say that everybody watching all of you watching this right now want to say it's fake clearly it's fake not someone did this whole thing online when they took his face in that face and they did a dissolve and I said well it's the same yeah you did that with anybody's face well it's hard to say we've extracted his footage torn it apart I've sat with him on many occasions to talk about it and it's hard to say what I can tell you is there is no proof that it's not real at this point and there is no proof that it's real at this point it's on the word of Todd standing so let me get into it another realm there but with this clip and there'll be more to say about this as we get into these shows but with this clip it's pretty clear if that's real well then see here's let me give you a little tip on in the world of searching big researching Bigfoot the Holy Grail or at least what do we I don't know what we call it mine I guess the Holy Grail would be in Finding Bigfoot or something like that but but let the the big thing is the patterson-gimlin footage and pretty incredible footage many researchers will say it is faked and many researchers will say it is real and on goes the battle I know that Roger Patterson died never admitting that it was anything other than real and Bob Gimlin who's still alive still holds through that this is what happened this is what they saw so either their resolve is really strong and they're lying or they're telling the truth and so the thing is that if Todd's footage and he has more better than this - if it's fake well let's just fake it's just another hoax but here's the hard one for all researchers to swallow if thought footage is real better than the patterson-gimlin footage everybody's got an allegiance to that footage so it's pretty fantastic everybody wants that that's the best but a close-up of a face like that holding still if it's real it's better and yes I've heard the guys and was a thinker thunk ER and all the different people go on and slam all of standings footage you know why cuz they don't like them they struggle with him because he's so chance Tod was gonna see this and he knows what I'm talking about this is why he and I can work together cuz I get it I see where he's coming from but a lot of people don't like that so they are you know they throw the baby out with the bathwater and I've never thrown the baby out with the bathwater in any circumstance I'm stuck being a Libra I guess I'm too much like inclusive like I am and could be it could be you never not always wanting to take people's word for things you know trust karma crust trust trust and trust so there's the thing if this footage is real it's better than the original patterson-gimlin footage and nobody in the research community wants to deal with that don't they don't want to hear that especially not from a guy they find is too intense and they don't like they don't like hearing from onwards I gotta heat up my coffee cool here in a power well by the way that little scene I'm gonna stop it there my editors are gonna rewind it for me they're gonna go back to that little thing we call them the bumper it's called a bumper in and out of commercial the Survivorman Bigfoot comes up and out of the water that wasn't that was one of those drone situations I talked about earlier well the drone went in the drink and again put the drone right down into the lake down to the bottom of the lake four or five feet down and they got over there in the boat the thing was under water still running so in any event pulled it out but it definitely fried however the shot of coming up out of the water is actually the reverse of what happened which was it crashed into the water that's how we got that shot stretch of the foothills of Alberta I'm looking for some answers if you look at and listen to the overwhelming amount of evidence pointing systems just a little recap I don't like a lot of recap see coming out our commercials a lot of shows will do it pre commercial coming up next and post commercial what you saw before the break believe Todd and I have really been out here for a few hours what that means is they don't have a lot of great content and they're trying to fill time and I would rather challenge us and have great content and not just to fill time you've got 43 minutes with me I want every one of those minutes to count I don't want to fill them up with recaps and before before the breaks and bumpers and stingers and all the other stuff that the devices that producers use Jack most of the afternoon late afternoon deep in checking on that science and just getting a read on the area now we're about to bunk down for the night and this time got a sleeping bag on pad to sleep on we're gonna sleep out in the open before we can even get settled before the Sun set and at this point Todd's convinced that we've got not one but potentially two before tricky sasquatch moving in and I heard it too I heard movement in the bush over there and moving in the bush over there so we've kind of gone back to normal this is where the challenge is to me as an outdoorsman you know to challenge myself with what I'm hearing the sounds squirrels see how it goes mice raccoons well what are you hearing you know and there's a way to dead listen in the wilderness and a lot of time in the bush and you you get to kind of know what the sounds are often you hear the sound and then you see this you see the culprit just these sounds or something now I mean it's nearly as bright as day out here Todd as going into the truck to sleep at night and I'm just left out here alone just to see what else if any other instances of sound or activity occur nothing's happened miss but just calm all night and there is one incidence of look at supposedly I did not do that on purpose but I noticed after I'd worked with Bob Dale gloves to create a line of Les Stroud gloves and I'm wearing my little midis there I don't even know if you can still buy him I can't remember but they're pretty good good gloves the man who was uh actually picked up by Bigfoot in his sleeping bag carried off oh yeah famous story and uh spent two days with the Bigfoot family and I miss games so you have to forgive me I can't member the guy's name something to think about I do always like leaving you with something to think about right before nighttime I did that was Survivorman a lot as well because you know it's that last moment like okay am I gonna be able to sleep tonight with this on my mind oh great here comes my cat you gonna run up come here or you just want to bug me can't you see I'm trying to do director's commentary Oh stupid cat I like to smush the cat's face like this and funnily enough she likes it can't you see alright so was I saying yeah so in the sleeping bag and I'd like to leave leaving it without a lot that story I can't remember the guys name but it was and it might have been the 20s I think maybe the 30s and the story is that he was picked up in a sleeping bag in his sleeping bag carried for a few miles very swiftly through the bush I mean and you know what I sleep with my head tucked in like a cocoon often you know so so I can imagine that happening taken into a cave and he's in there with a male a female and two two young Bigfoot they stank terrible stank and long story short at some point he had I mean he was you know getting pretty hungry at this point but he had some chewing tobacco and he had the chewing tobacco out and he was starting he's still stuck in it man he's stuck in a cave with a Bigfoot family and the male is coming and going and and then the male grabbed the chewing tobacco or the snuff or whatever it was and put it all in his mouth and then freaked out from the burn I guess and ran out of the the things screaming and the female ran out and he took it upon himself at that point to leave and another part of the story is the female ran after him and he and Annie all this time he still had his rifle with him because his rifle was in a sleeping bag with him he slept them you know as a trapper he slept with the rifle in the back I've done that before and he turned it on the on the on the female and she screamed and basically let him going he and he just ran for all it's worth and ran out of their thoughts the story as it goes plus there's all these details that he wrote about because he wrote about it many years later when there was interest in it he wrote a lot of the details of what went on while he was in the cave noticing the interaction between these beings so fantastical story rooted in nonsense and a complete lie who knows if it's real well there's lots of other stories like that throughout the years into with Aboriginal communities and different people in the bush so he's not alone in telling that story that's all I can say it could be nonsense though maybe if you guys are hosting a comment you droppers host the guy's name and he's not officers and the like claim to have seen a Bigfoot are they all hoaxers are they all delusional the answer no matter what it is is out here just sit up there especially today what's gonna happen but I was there so I'm not a sailor cut off in another direction hey do some basic tracking I think I'm wearing a tie on kinds of marking signs tracks that are different not from different what you'd expect there really is only one way to truly get in and track wilderness creatures of any kind and that's to get in there I think the key here is in my situation if I'm looking to survive I look for the same thing okay so at this point I'm still thinking very physical what does a big big creature need to survive physically shelter food water stuff like that and that is my train of thought on this the other thing that I started all along with this is I need to be out there alone now I've changed my mind on that over the years force researching Bigfoot it's it doesn't it doesn't need to be something you need to be alone to do in fact if anything it's pretty good to have someone else there to corroborate your experience with but in this case you know in the series I was definitely approaching it this way and so this was all great hanging out with Todd but I wanted him to put me somewhere where I could just see what happens it's so significant as we approach the structure tree structure here we got something you'd notice if you were walking by there doesn't seem to be anything exceptional about the area it's not high ground or low ground there's no nearby creeks or specialty food sources of all the places why build a structure here I need to see if Todd is onto something that few if any before him have discovered that's the thing you know taught there's that shot Todd did come up with a lot of stuff with this intensive research that people don't want to give him credit for it but he was of his own mind and I guess that was the thing that attracted me was he was a you know to working with him he was I was Oh mind of this whole thing it wasn't to other formats for researching but yeah see look at this right here but doesn't that look odd like this one right here that's thrown upside down ever seen a butt of a tree 15 20 feet in the air like I say yes I have and even better than that if you look at this one over here on the left but nonetheless everything's straight everything's standing if it was a storm situation if this was a one-off it's a one-off this structure is over 30 years old but there's more like 50 now that's a guess on its part I think years old you know far it was to get in can you imagine this beam here 30 years ago when there's no road this tree is bent in it's actually physically been bent and twisted again that can happen over time but in seeing this what I wanted to do I really wanted to get taught away from me let me say like that's what I'm talking about right now and talk yeah I can't think of a natural occurrence to pull this but I wanted to CSI this whole tonight here go top to bottom the weight of the snow and wind storms and rot the snow couldn't have done this I know that wind wouldn't have done this I know that rot wouldn't have done this I know that there is one missing link there is one last thing that could be left here and that is what about human or humans well I work with trees all the time I'm a newer trees around I use dead trees I use live trees I put them in the position I make shelters I make signal fires I make markings as a man I could I could build this the issue is the level of difficulty is extreme there's age to the trees and that's very very difficult to fake and it's aged in position plus those trees look small on a TV screen there they stood and and the ones that have pushed where they stood I'd take a look at him and the bottom is old if this was done even within the last two years it wouldn't look like this which which which tells me that this thing has been here for quite some time and which tells me that that the potential for this to have been faked is small I can get close to the feeling of survival and that's one other thing about about hoaxes a lot of times the things that are found say footprints on a beech tree structures that look like wow that's too intricate they're found in places where if somebody was hoaxing they'd be kind of psychotic because it's in the middle of nowhere where you never know if anybody's ever gonna go nowadays with the you know advent of Bigfoot on television and all the different stuff it'd be harder to look at things around national parks in places like that and not go up come on you know teenagers were here on the weekend and they've been watching Finding Bigfoot or something and they want to you know do a bit of a hoax and freak out the campers condos going and perhaps even getting them excited about our being here Todd uses apples as the killings and we placed them high enough a deer and anything else should leave obvious tracks ice where we're headed and just keep seeking out signs walk through the area be calm and casual in the area it's mainly whatever is here be it grizzly I think I could be a squirrel be it a basically like they're surviving while we're here and it'll make its own assumptions on how to deal with us or not let's have different examples of the same species of wildlife Sasquatch to have reputations that run the gamut from friendly and even helpful encounters to aggressive behavior that includes grunting screaming rock throwing leg pulls and even abduction so that's the point not maybe I'll repeat some of these points in future episodes but and I want to get too ahead of my research though that went where I was out on this stage I want to bring that in maybe I'll bring it in later but it's the whole sort of point about you know are they benign or are they dangerous are they friendly are the communicative and not it's an interesting thing because what I've found over the years is that those who want them to be dangerous thing will say they're dangerous and those who want them to be keepers of the forest and the ancient ones will will say no they're just beautiful spiritual entities and they're they mean us no harm meanwhile people have been killed so they're not correct and the ones who think they're just dangerous well people have been helped by them apparently so they're not correct so yeah I'll get into that later what are the possibilities many Todd feels that the Sasquatch in this particular area must have some affinity to humans since in fact they seem to have accepted the trapars that were here before even if their very appearance alone was enough to scare the men away for me it always comes down to getting right out there deep are in the danger zone a place where I'm vulnerable enough for a creature such as this to want to attempt contact very clearly following a well-worn trail it's not human challenged by any respects of scummy these are the things to follow we just got this perfect indentation that's one of the benefits of tracking in mosque marks that get made repeatedly stay for a while give us something to follow her first time I've been doing whoops a steady wolf causal howls all the time it works really well so I'm doing this because one researcher taught standing has suggested that it's a way to communicate with them and we continue to explore the trestle why not well as the unbroken areas of the forest signs of such a controversial subject are going to take a concerted effort to find and I have to be careful I don't want to fall prey to the power of suggestion especially Todd is one of the best in the field but what does that even mean yet he like thousands of people before him swears to have seen the creature clear enough to have no doubt and I just want to erase my own does scripting has always been important to me tell you a little story on years later I was asked to do potentially a new Bigfoot series with another network and and I got on the phone with the you guys may refer me tell this story before as far as or the reference before gatekeepers network gatekeepers and as a regenerative I you know I love a lot of the network's I've worked with Science Channel Discovery Channel O L an you know they've been doing really great networks to work with um the it's the problem is the individuals that you might come up against I call them the gatekeepers in this particular case we were looking at doing the series for another network and this gatekeeper who I didn't get along with anyway so um I guess it's all things in there time and place we got on the phone with me and argue with me about twenty minutes for about twenty minutes that Todd was considered a fake and that they had a Bigfoot researcher that was much more credible that they wanted me to use of course the one they wanted me to use didn't even go out in the bush Todd's climbing mountains but anyway we're talking Bigfoot researchers here I was on the phone and I'm like oh you think my guys have fraud and your guys okay they're big food researchers that's like it's like I'm on the phone with this guy arguing over the validity of which Bigfoot researcher is to be trusted and taken for real and which one isn't yeah I just think I put that for a while that was the end of me doing any work for that network believe me the tree bricks are still just a theory but like it is when I'm out surviving you have to be out here to get it theory though it may be things do seem to be lining up and all reference this later as we get into some of the future shows it's about paying attention to the subtle it's a tough thing to do you feel that they point in the direction that is they're okay with you being yes but not behind that's right that's where I'm standing Todd's here nothing more really you go where the point is and he's made that because they was a communication point points towards the human trail so you've got trees lined up every so many hundred yards or so and the tree breaks are all like this and they all point to the trail and they're that they they're not always able to be done by humans and the potential for it to be snow low uniformity here that's actually starting to freak me out a little see there we go and get unbelievable because this is clearly a trap line yeah see it's the uniformity of it you know um snow load doesn't come in uniform fashion and if it does it's like everything the tree break situation is a really interesting phenomenon I wouldn't trust them around parks these days because I think kids are doing them now but when you're in a deep dark area and you start to see a uniformity or a pattern to things like structures and tree breaks that's when you know you're starting to pay attention to the subtles and we stop and hooped specific consolidated points and the subtleties are a big part of this a few minutes after doing our communication hoops we're stopped in our tracks by an answer did you know I heard that that was a Bigfoot uh-huh and this is why people don't like to work with Todd standing that was a Bigfoot okay come on now maybe it was um there's bombing bird oh I gotta get some of that sorry hummingbird feeder something you can't do that that was that's the stuff that I started to say to toddle it's like you can't do that you can't just hear a crack and go that was Bigfoot that's the same dangers that you know the other shows going Squatch it's a Squatch can do that you've got to go while it was odd you know it was definitely weird but so far away you know could it have been a raven yes it could have been a raping right you said you want to take nothing for granted that was a Bigfoot so heat and did it again there it-it's a this is but this is the way Todd operates which is a good thing he operates on the assumption that everything is a Bigfoot until proven otherwise right never things innocent until proven guilty lots of danger and operating that way but you received lots of insight and operating that way that was it that was a whoop yeah I heard it very clearly that was not a crow crow that was over that way I heard it that was the Bigfoot hmm that's the first time they've ever walked back to me ever hear and that's what I was talking about earlier you nothing is because we'll always be walking there would be something going on we'd be talking but you just heard that did you no I heard it clear very clear and we both we both went at the very same time yeah let's just take a look at this from my perspective right now I've come out here with the purpose of skeptically getting closer to a sasquatch sorry about the dog barking and discovering what that means and what's possible and I supported Kali but it barks all it took for expert Todd standing so we come out here we hike for hours Claire as we look at a tree breaks we do our whoops these are things these are these are characteristics and ways that you watch as hottes discovery the museum years of study will be effective for connecting or contacting or have any experience that involves a sasquatch okay so I'm down with that and we do it we get out to the end we're way up high I mean it's high and we do our whoops three and a half minutes four minutes goes by and we both are stopped suddenly by the well what can only be described as a return whoop the reality is hoax okay how in the hell did Todd ever get somebody all the way out there and time it for me to land here and and then have them whoop back the way I hope you know obviously just impossible was it a bird well potential is always there but you know what bird calls pretty well just one little loop like that just like mine off in the distance and nothing else that starts to take away the probability that it's a bird so let's just see what happens this time let's just do our whoops and sit quietly for three or four minutes just to see and it's not we carry on okay what I miss my still whooping I'm just gonna wait quietly here for a couple minutes and see if we get the same reaction we did last time oops in the forest will not be enough for me I need to keep pushing I need to go in deeper I need to stay out here overnight and alone I need to see this for myself the answer a lot of Bigfoot researchers are very nervous of doing that I'm no tougher than the next guy and no no more brave than the next person in fact I'm a bit of a big pussy before I know the bush and I know my time in the woods and and I know that to experience anything this deep I need to be out there whether it be an ape Gigantopithecus or an alien or anything in between one way the other I gotta be out there and hope I don't get abducted into something and it's this I'd spent a lot of time in northern Quebec yeah working with me I'm a little bit kids don't look at that wilderness survival methods and one of the things they showed me was it in fact they utilize branches and structures that's entered in between a lot of different things especially traveling they might set up a branch in a certain way another one would be leaning against it like this and you come along and you go oh okay well Jimmy came this way and he's suggesting that over that way is where the good moose hunting is or depending on where it exists on the branch everything indicated something different it was a way of telling a story to the person who comes along behind you so when you think of this the humans have been doing this for a couple of thousand years here in North America this was their methodology to take branches break them bend them in certain ways so that people can behind them can get a message it starts to make the tree structures that we're looking at as ways of ways for a sasquatch species to to indicate something to give a message a lot more plausible is it's so far fetched that an intelligent species an upright bipedal walking hominid might do the same thing and that all these tree structures that Todd is talking about a part of that process and that is thing here that's that can advance you a little bit let's look at this way again going with the the benefit of the doubt here they're going to need to communicate so we get into questions well how do they communicate their methods for communication are going to be in a nature in a natural sense in a wilderness kind of sense sophisticated more sophisticated than an elk or a bear you know the more sophisticated than peeing on a log although that might be included too and so working with stick structures well humans have been doing that for a long long time where'd we get that idea from well for my brains okay but again if there's sophistication to the way a sasquatch communicates who's to say that the bending and breaking and branches is and building of structures and so on is not to communicate a to each other be to other Sasquatch see two humans join up for a while everything is normal looks as it should look in a forest and then you come upon something that just seems abnormal that's the subtlety look no you know these things is not like the other that's what you're looking normal searching for a Bigfoot I know Todd's gonna tell me absolutely this is a tree structure I'm wearing a GoPro basis having been around that long it might be like a GoPro one or something fresh start from the bottom right so we've got the single tree up the middle and it's still alive okay it has a whole bunch of trees tangled around it twist it around and yet it's younger than the trees that are around it see number two gets a snow load and falls like that okay acceptable all right to number three it's got to be the suspended one okay if it was snow load then tree number three fell still make sense before anything else is there right it fell I don't know how it could have fallen I mean it have to fall in between the fork branches and then it would have to be here long enough to rot off the pieces on either side and be I remain there suspended and tree number four is likely to be the big burnt one that goes across but it's more like it's shoved up through right if that's the case then why not these other trees they're just the same size why aren't they snapped over so taking into account the fact that the tree of the center its it was hard to show this by camera in the future I'll film something like this with 360 VR because then you can actually sort of get that feel that 3d feel which you're not getting with the camera like this it sort of looks like well they just look like the branches that fell from the snow it's true but no one you're standing there not but they don't look like that that you understand in there this there's other possibilities and there's also possibilities you can rule out with like I couldn't have fallen like that you know it had to be so then what what could it have been well well well it had to be placed there okay no bear no bar yes I well so far the evidence suggests that something not humans not whether Billy's in my car not Anna Mae instructors but what the FAK at base camp we prepare ourselves for a night that starts out calm but will end anything but oh I don't even remember what happened win tonight it's been perfect so long since I hear anything if you listen closely but that's not what we're listening for at the moment Todd and I are just sitting here by the campfire telling campfire stories and sure enough just heard a good solid sound you can tell it's wood sound not far just getting a few hundred yards from a slightly yeah fill myself a lot it's double tricky to try and film yourself and somebody else I heard that yeah so we're starting to hear some real things here I mean serious things and this is one of my pet peeves against little you know the other shows and had us and to fake it again this is where Todd goes too far there's three there's three oh yeah come on ease off a bit big guy we got to figure this out in in some of the other TV shows like in Finding Bigfoot you know I mean that just faked it they had guys screaming off on the sidelines there was even a time and I know this for a fact that the TV crew we're messing with Bobo and cliff and them by going off and a TV guy was going off and making sounds and doing stuff and watching the defining Bigfoot characters react that's how little respect was given in that series to proper research of the phenomenon because cliff was the real deal he is the real deal he's completely into this and smart man I don't know Bobo at all but that's what goes on well in my case I didn't want to have any of that we're just gonna sit if nothing happens guess what you're gonna find out on my show nothing happened so when it does happen it happened and if I didn't know what it was I don't know what it is just one thing it wasn't just one thing now we've heard what it just sounded like someone hitting one against another thought he's popped his mouth a couple of small gentle hopes so I've got any position here so turn that down I mean that's one of the things again you know that I did respect about Todd standing when his researching you came up with a lot of different you know interesting theories so for example when you talk about you know there's a lot of people that go on and on about tree knocks and that they're like a baseball bat to tree yeah it's really quite loud you know walk out on the bush and see if you can a find the exact right dried dead branch that you can do that with on the exact right tree to make that sound well it turns out not every tree is what a lot of times it's just thunk punk you got up the right tree to make that sound my home Canada I found I can do it with birch trees specifically you know with a nice almost like a baseball bat to do well that's tough not just laying around now you post your debt no you can remember what we're talking about something that's massive so let's say the face structures like this big right - you see you I'm saying there it's an interesting theory of toss maybe they're just popping their mouth maybes I mean if they are beings of phenomena out in the for a phenomenon out in the forest and they need ways of communicating and they don't have the vocal cords to speak like we do then maybe it's just something very simple mimicking Birds imitating owls mimicking and imitating other creatures all of those things may be very possible to a phenomenon that exists in the natural world and so the tree knocking could it be branches on trees like a baseball bat it could be well maybe they came up with a much easier way few hundred and they were intelligent enough to hide they could certainly do it out here woods here and investigate where we heard the three sounds last night look around see if we can spot any prints at all I mean the sounds we heard were distinct there was no wind wasn't creaking trees definitely not a grizzly or cougar or anything like that no ungulate no hoofed animals some tracks you're kidding me the apples are gone damn we might have new prints here and you notice right we'd put apples Industries is a lot of had all researchers they were here reference gifting apples are going out later I'm seeing new impressions cuz that looks to me like a Bigfoot track right here come here look at this truck heel impression and then there's like holes yeah okay so we start back here and it ends up here gosh it sure does look like an impression it does doesn't it my foot wouldn't made that in your foot wouldn't have made it and if we do the test got a little pressure test is a great you're not trying to turn this into a show of defending Todd standing those believe me is a difficult man to work with right the you know the idea of going beside a Bigfoot track and jumping down hard I mean no not really actually heard other people say that I mean I know other people know that they might know how to do it but you'll see this big track somewhere and you think all something I made that try and make it try and make one just like it right beside it I'm fine whoa and you have to take into account boys Chur wasn't raining the ground texture is it rock is it same as it mud is but often you can't make the impression the depth of impression into the ground as as deep as you see on the big track that you're looking at so it's good way to test it just go besides jump up and down little hard see if you can see such a sharp angle that any tracks any impressions that just pop out at you really easy to see the shadow city yeah freaking me out here I recognize that the camera won't capture the look of this track the way my own eyes do but no animal I'm aware of could have made it and there's no reason for the moss to grow indented in this manner this is the track the way it goes it's got the definite shape like a human foot and then the the toe end of it there's literally holes all right stuff to show on a camera that's the tricky part so often even I'm just showing them in kind of a hill of doing spider-man shows like that is that tough climb but I can't show that on camera the camera doesn't pick it up as much as I'd like it to him same thing that tracks look how close he was this is close he was looking right at this those tracks were not there the day before again that's his you know talk does that thing though you know he was looking right at us it creates a spook factor and I'm not easily spooked it's time to go in alone that's how I do my best work anyway then there's no parson gently defies all of my usual logic for a good place to survive and be stationed it's a small deep little pocket of a place far from our base camp that's the thing I'd want to be if I wanted the upper hand in a real survival situation right to make myself as vulnerable as possible I go places it's different for Bigfoot leader me feel safe enough to come in and check me out surprise we didn't talk more about the apples in the tree maybe every did while I was out getting my coffee heated up but um it's a technique called gifting you know you put something out for this species is phenomenon and maybe more on that later but it's a very big practice many people think it's nonsense many people think it's fantastic and it works and those who think it works have put gifts out and had them taken and even to the point of having gifts returned I myself have done it in a lot of situations after this period of time in my life and and so I'll get to that later on the other episodes and I can tell you that I've had even since shooting the series I've had some crazy experiences that way yeah Lourdes Anna whatever's out there I want contact a wave attack was a cool word for this we're setting ourselves up and I understand what we're taught it's coming from it's the opposite of what I would normally do I mean purposely placing ourselves in the position of vulnerability I mean this is this is this is a kind of positioning I would not put myself in in an area like this when I'm concerned with good healthy population of grizzly bears black bears and of course cougar but every once in a while I gotta just stop and think man what am i doing what is this anyway but you know what I know what I heard yesterday and I can't explain it not within normal explanations yeah you know I think I think oh you know we showed up at this baking shoot forgotten some of my outdoor clothing so somewhat Masterson jacket I bought last minute mark swimmer I was like that's not what I heard yesterday you know I heard my whoop give him back at me that was freaky three or four minutes after I made it and last night by the fire yeah there's no explanation for what we heard last night by the fire I don't have one and I spent most of my life out here I start to think back to all the different sounds and things that I've seen and heard when I'm down on survival missions especially what happened to me in Alaska and also what happened to me in Northern Ontario I know the sounds of moose wolves bears Birds and these other experiences they aren't any of those so what are they we're following dozens of very strict rules set out by Todd one mistake and these elusive creatures could disappear into the vast forests without a trace that's a tricky part you know because a researcher will give you qualifying you know protocol and sometimes they speak against my common sense but other times maybe that makes sense I mean I think where I was getting out with with Todd and and and those types of things is understanding that it's about subtlety and if you if you disregard what you're trying to create trying to create a communication here can contact you know you're trying to I mean that's really what I'm trying to do there and so overstepping the boundaries or pushing the limit pushing the envelope a lot of researchers will talk about like I got antsy I got anxious and I pushed it a little too hard and they were gone so more on that later but it's about what are we dealing with that then on one hand is powerful and on the other hand is skittish tricky thing to research in 1995 I spent a year living in the wilderness and on one occasion I listened on a calm dark night to two heavy feet walking closer to my shelter my wife at the time heard them too we sat and listened until it came so close that we called out just as we would to scare off a bear it could only be described as sounding like a very heavy man walking but we were in the middle of nowhere with no one around for many miles the Walker stopped when we called out it turned and just walked away I didn't see it but I know it wasn't a moose or a bear so what was it if it happens again tonight I'll be ready yeah even in that situation you know at least after all period of time I I don't know why should say now but but my ex-wife definitely we both kind of looked at each other just kind of that had to be a Bigfoot it was the only explanation we had really I mean what things sounded like in the forest and uh that was in wobba Kimi that was during the year of filming snowshoes in solitude my first documentary film it happened then and there and to this day I regret not popping my head out of the shelter and taking a look at whatever it was that was coming close cuz it got within 25 feet and I would have seen it and I really regret you know what I did I chickened out it's what I did it's why I called out and I just chickened out and you know any bear moose cougar wouldn't have stopped turned and walked back in the same direction it came I mean it just doesn't make sense so what was it there's the strangest version of being out here I've ever done that's for sure please Cougars what else yeah bottom of the bowl worst case to be you know this is absolutely by far the last place that I would normally leave myself for the night in the very trophy last place completely vulnerable right at the bottom of a bull everything around me isn't explained all that Cougars love high ground the whole point is that Cody mr. standing so do Sasquatch and we're giving them that little survival to face and my belt there it's actually a rope belt I've always in going the wilderness made my belts be made out of rope for the obvious nough said then I can use it as a rope just a little survival trick I'm giving them not I'm giving them I'm giving Matador love doing stuff like that I definitely heard something but I had to do know where to go knows where to cut great that's his fence for you you can put out trail cams use infrared technology to spot one even hunt them if you want you might get lucky but I doubt it I'm looking for contact if there's something out there I'll find it this was just the beginning so we got so much content during the shooting of this that we need to determine this into two episodes which is why we thought let's let's stop it right there on a cliffhanger I mean it's just you know classic production technique is to have a cliffhanger and anyway it's fun I gotta shut up now go and I'm gonna actually go to go grab another episode and maybe sit through another I'm beyond survival and a couple Survivorman and get these up on that commentary for you so hope you enjoyed that that's the beginning of the Survivorman Bigfoot series and directors commentary I'll keep these coming thanks see you next time

Channel: Survivorman - Les Stroud

Views: 638,733

Rating: 4.7139397 out of 5

Keywords: Survivorman, 'Les, Stroud', Survivormanbigfoot, optoutside, rightotroam, survivorman, lesstroud, outdooradventure, survivalfire, toddstanding, bigfoot, sasquatch, Survivorman Director's Commentary - Season 1 - Episode 1 - Bigfoot Nordegg, Surviorman: Bigfoot Directors Commentary - Season 1 - Episode 1 - Nordegg, Survivorman Director's Commentary, Bigfoot Nordegg

Id: Zpoiab2JpkQ

Length: 72min 12sec (4332 seconds)

Published: Tue Apr 28 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/danmac1152]

Les is a big advocate for Bigfoot being real based on his own experiences. The podcast with joe Rogan he gets into it somewhat and on another show he had made too. I take his word more so than a lot of others because I know he’s not with the fake fuckery. That’s how Bear Grills got his start. Discovery wanted Les to do stupid manufactured situations, like reality tv and he said no way. Enter Bear Grills. Les certainly doesn’t come off as a liar

[u/617teddy]

it was a grizzly but i’d deal with him later. LOL ok Les take it easy lol

[u/617teddy]

i admit i like his shows but holy crap is he full of himself!! sweet jesus!