The cache IS NOT at the posted coordinates.
In order to get the 3 sets of numbers, answer the question below.
“Coordinates in the Canopy” – A 2016 Bigfoot Encounter
Told by JJ
August 21, 2016. Sunny, warm, about 82 degrees. A perfect day for geocaching.
Kwren and I had planned to hit a couple hidden caches scattered around Hickory Hills Forest Preserve. She’d just gotten into the hobby a few months back, and I’d been doing it for years, so we made a good team. She brought the snacks, I brought the bug spray. Classic.
Around 1:30 PM, we were following a set of coordinates that led us into a denser part of the preserve. Not exactly off-limits, but definitely not well-traveled. The sunlight filtered in through the trees in broken rays, and the forest had that lazy, buzzing energy—the kind you only get in late summer. We found our first cache near a fallen log. Easy find. Signed it, left a tiny trinket. Then Kwren noticed a multi-cache hint posted earlier that week—it was deeper in, near the edge of a shallow ravine. No real trail out there. Just animal tracks and scattered undergrowth. We followed the GPS, chatting and joking, when something shifted. Not in the GPS—in the air.
It got quiet. Not dead silent, just different. Birds stopped. Bugs stopped. The usual sound blanket of the forest got pulled away. We both felt it. Then came the smell. I don’t even know how to describe it right. Earthy, yes—but more than that. Musky, sour, like damp fur mixed with something off. Kwren wrinkled her nose and said, “Please tell me that’s not you.”
I laughed, but I was uneasy. “Skunk?” I offered. “No. That’s… different,” she said. And then we heard it—movement. Heavy. One set of footsteps, deliberate. Breaking twigs. Something big, upright. Not a deer. Too slow, too steady. We both stopped. I motioned for her to turn off the GPS beeps. We crouched low near a thicket of ferns and listened. The sound came from just beyond a cluster of maples maybe 30 feet ahead. Then, a figure stepped out from behind one of the trees. It was huge. I don’t mean “huge” huge. I mean shoulders wider than a fridge, standing at least 8 feet tall. Covered in dark, matted hair. It walked upright like a person but with this slightly swaying, powerful motion—like it had weight and strength behind every step.
The creature paused and looked right at us. Not an animal stare—something smarter. Measured. Curious, maybe. Or annoyed. It didn’t growl. It didn’t run. It just watched. I didn’t move. Neither did Kwren. My phone, still in my hand, had a camera ready—but I didn’t dare raise it. Something about the moment felt sacred—or dangerous. Or both. After what felt like forever, it turned. Quietly. Walked away into the ravine like it had better things to do than scare a couple of hikers. The woods remained silent for a few seconds longer. Then: birds again. Wind. Everything came back, like someone hit play on the world. We didn’t say much right away. Just backed up, quietly, calmly—until we got to the more familiar trail. Only then did we talk about what we saw.
We left a note in that cache, by the way. Just a simple message:
“Saw something… incredible nearby. Cache safe. Be respectful out here.”
Aftermath
Neither JJ nor Kwren returned to that part of Hickory Hills that year. But the cache is still there. And sometimes, in the logs, others mention odd noises, weird smells, that sense of being watched.
Maybe Bigfoot doesn’t care about being found.
Maybe he just wants to be left alone.
What animal did JJ think the smell came from?
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This cache is NOT at the posted coordinates. You can start searching from anywhere!
This Wherigo allows you to search for the cache using only distance clues (no directions)
The cartridge was created by -Waldmeister- and is available to download from the wherigo.com website. -Waldmeister-'s "The first Reverse Cache [WIG]" is the original cache in this family. Read the Reverse Cache FAQ here If you have never played a Reverse WIG read the instructions here.