- [Stephfond] Tonight on "WPBS Weekly: Inside the Stories".

- If you don't believe in Bigfoot, give me a week in the woods and you will.

- [Stephfond] Folklore stories are common this time of year, but are the ones about Bigfoot and the Lyons Falls water monster true?

We'll share local sightings and let you decide.

Also, walking to improve mental health.

One Canadian author shares his reasons why taking in a hike can make all the difference.

And, we're taking you above the trees in the Adirondacks.

We're talking zip lining.

Your stories, your region, coming up right now on "WPBS Weekly: Inside the Stories".

(uplifting music) - [Narrator] "WPBS Weekly: Inside the Stories" is brought to you by The Daisy Marquis Jones Foundation and The Watertown Oswego Small Business Development Center, a free resource offering confidential business advice for starting or expanding a small business.

- Good evening, everyone and welcome to this edition of "WPBS weekly: Inside The Stories".

I'm Stephfond Brunson.

With Halloween coming up this weekend, folklore and ghost stories are a plenty.

Tonight, we share two such stories.

First, Bigfoot sightings in the North Country and Canada are quite common.

Yet, the consensus is split on whether or not the creature is real.

Add to that, sightings of a water monster in Lyons Falls.

The stories are decades old and sightings are still happening.

Our Joleene DesRosiers spent time with those who claim they seen the creatures.

Some who started out as non-believers until they had their first sighting.

(gentle music) (birds chirping) (water babbling) - [Joleene] In the waving waters below the Davis Bridge in Lyons Falls, a mystery lurks.

- Listening to people talk about this monster that lives in Lyons Falls, and everyone has slightly different stories whether it's a bank robber through his loot over the bridge, and couldn't retrieve it because a monster was protecting it because it's a good monster and it was a bad robber or just fishermen that were out and about fishing and this thing surfaced below the water and scared them.

- [Joleene] The story started here decades ago at the former Lyons Falls paper and pulp mill.

James Skorupa, a retired mill worker, grew up hearing the stories and while he's never seen the Lioness, he's heard plenty of accounts.

- The first time I heard this story was back in, I'm in the 1950s.

My father worked at the mill also, and he come home and at supper table, he mentioned the name of a guy that was fishing on the Black River and saw this, what do you call a monster.

- I'm at the old mill, they took lunch breaks and went fishing for the monster with specially made fish hooks so that they could catch the monster and prove that it was real.

- Well, one of them described it as like a, oh, like a snake type thing, like it with Loch Ness and another one just said it was just bob, the head was bobbing up and stuff.

They weren't sure, you know, what the length of it was or the size of it but, yeah.

- [Joleene] It's the same description shared by the Brown family.

After spending the day with family swimming in the river, Sam and Eric Brown hopped into their minivan with their children to head home, but their departure was stalled when... (eerie music) - We actually threw the minivan into park, because we were just so shocked by what we saw and it came out of the water like an eel or like a snake body and it had spikes coming out of the top that moved with the body.

And it was just, it moved like nothing we've ever seen.

- When its head went underwater, the rest of the body just arced out.

So fish go back and forth, right?

It's something different that its back bends that way.

And as it went underwater, there were spikes on its back probably 12 inch long spikes that came out really thin spikes and they raised up and then lowered back down to it as it was slowly going under water and then it was just gone.

- [Joleene] They didn't get a photo.

It all happened so fast but Eric did create a rendition of what he saw.

A skeptic about such folklore, his skepticism was eradicated that day.

Now he and his wife, Sam, hoped to bring in experts that can take a deep dive into the water to confirm the truth of exactly what they saw.

- Well, we reached out to Jeremy Wade in "River Monsters" to let them know about what we saw too because we just... Who do we get to come check this thing out because we believe in it that much?

- I'm obnoxiously skeptical about this sort of thing.

So I don't know what it was, and if someone else has seen it, I'd say it was a beaver, I'd say it was any number of things.

You know, it was a fish, it was a log.

It was something caught in the river, but you know, we knew what we, well, we don't know what we saw, but we know what we didn't see and it really wasn't any of those things.

- It actually sends chills up your spine, like it was immediate goosebumps.

You just know that you're seeing something that you've never seen before.

- [Joleene] Some believe the creature might be an ancient sturgeon as this picture depicts.

It was taken by a local resident under the Davis Bridge where the Moose River and the Black River meet.

The account was published by flackbroadcasting.com.

Could it be the same spiked, eel-like creature, affectionately dubbed Lioness by villagers?

- I don't believe that it's a sturgeon.

I had a lot of people try to tell me like, "Well, is it a sturgeon?"

or "Is it a log?"

And it's just the spikes that came out of its back moved with its body and it was much more like a snake or an eel movement but I don't think it was long enough or wide enough to be a sturgeon.

- If there's something like this living in there, then this is what people have been seeing over the years and calling Lioness.

- I hope someday somebody really see something that can prove this all, yeah.

- Now, while the mysterious stories of Lioness continue to baffle North Country residents, so do stories of Bigfoot.

Sasquatch sightings have been ongoing for centuries.

As a matter of fact, here in the North Country, more and more folks are stepping up with the sightings unafraid of what skeptics may think.

(eerie music) - [John Tatro] Appears to be three subjects, a smaller one or one further back, probably 20 yards past this one, and this third one that might be squatting and turning towards the camera.

- [Joleene] John Tatro of Massena was a firm non-believer of Bigfoot.

- I was definitely a skeptic.

It was along the lines of Loch Ness Monster, unicorns, and other things.

(suspenseful music) - [Joleene] But all of that changed in 2012.

He was driving his tractor along a hedge row on his 87 acre property when he says he saw something that changed his life forever.

(ominous music) (Bigfoot snarling) - When I got right broad side of it, I realized how big this thing was.

It was at least eight feet tall and the shoulders were like that and this part of the neck muscle was filled in solid and it was covered with black hair.

The size of this thing was probably, if I had to guess, approximately 800 pounds.

It's enormous.

When these things scream, it's like you're standing in front of a concert speaker.

(Bigfoot screams) (Bigfoot snarls) Your insides vibrate and you're like, "What is going on?"

(Bigfoot screaming) When you see these things for the first time, your life changes in an instant.

It's like...

It's hard to describe 'cause everything you believed in changes.

- [Joleene] Since then, he's captured them on his field camera, three to be precise, and a shared those captures with others like Michael Guimond, also of Massena, who said he had his first sighting in June.

(gentle upbeat music) - At 11:30 at night, I was coming home from a gig.

I'm a musician with my son.

He was asleep and didn't see it.

He came out of the tree line here, in a circular motion at the zigzag across the road, within seconds, it was in to this field.

And I've seen a lot of deer run out in front of me late at night from coming home and this was no deer.

This was on two feet.

It was moving in this bizarre circular motion, but it was gray, brown, and shaggy, and it was at least seven feet tall but it was moving in a circular motion and it was extremely fast.

It ran out in front of my car, about 50 feet from my car.

I was going 60 and this thing just had as much control as I did in a vehicle at that speed.

It was just phenomenal to see the speed and the power run across the road.

By the time I got home, I was speechless and I'm like, "What did I see?"

It was on two feet, it ran in front of me.

I mean, there's no other thing it could be.

So that's when I made my post which got 270 comments and 471 shares on Facebook and it also made coast to coast.

- [Joleene] Bigfoot sightings in the North Country and Canada are far from new, but it seems Northern New Yorkers are stepping up now more than ever with their testimonials.

Dean Gleason, Executive Director of Seaway Valley Bigfoot Research in Ogdensburg has been researching the existence of the bipedal creature for years.

- When I do the gifting, I always call the Bigfoot by their Indian name to let them know that I've been here.

Sasquatch!

Sasquatch!

I left you a gift.

One of the techniques that a lot of Bigfoot researchers use is called gifting which is where we leave something out for the Bigfoot that they can't get on their own.

Either some kind of a food or some Bigfoot researchers will leave them little baskets or things like that, that the Bigfoot like.

And it's a way to build trust between yourselves and the Bigfoot in the area.

If they see you're leaving them something and not expecting anything for it, it gives them a little trust in you.

- [Joleene] Dean says he's had several sightings himself and like most people that do has done his best to document it with images or castings of footprints.

He admits his first isn't that great, but carries a kit with him in the hopes of getting a better cast next time.

- Well, end goal with this would be to provide evidence that can't be refuted.

And I would like to see Bigfoot declared an endangered species because then the federal government would have to get involved and give them some protection.

- [Joleene] All three of these North Country residents have shared their stories publicly and all three have been met with ridicule, but that ridicule means nothing to them.

- And I know some of your audience is snickering right now but that's okay.

I know these things are real and a lot of other people know they're real.

Honest to God, I wish I'd never seen it.

I wish I'd never experienced hearing these things and seeing these things.

- If you don't believe in Bigfoot, give me a week in the woods and you will.

- This setting has caused me to research more, but I'm not coming up with a list of rebuttals to skeptics out of my own sheer curiosity.

You know, I've researched the phenomenon.

- People in the media, not present company excepted, make fun of people that have these experiences, thinking they're a bunch of hillbillies or something, you know.

Most people that criticize us, Bigfoot researchers, are people that have never even been out in the woods themselves and their experience with going out in the woods might be going to a state park or going to a a campground somewhere.

They've never been really out in the hardwoods and experienced anything real for themselves.

- [Joleene] The first video of an alleged Bigfoot surfaced in 1967, stories, pictures, encounters, and sightings have only increased.

The same is true for water monsters.

Loch Ness is the most popular story about an ancient water monster and Lioness has even made it into a book.

Folklore or not, seeing really is believing.

Until then, keep looking.

For WPBS Weekly, I'm Joleene DesRosiers.

- As we move into the colder shorter days, mental health is on the minds of many.

Seasonal affective disorder is very real and putting measures into place to curb it is crucial.

Tonight, we take a walk with Dan Rubinstein, Canadian author of "Born To Walk".

Rubinstein talks about the transformative properties of walking for physical and mental health.

(upbeat music) - My name is Dan Rubinstein.

I'm a writer and excessive walker who lives here in Ottawa.

I love everything about it.

I mean, it's, it's the easiest and most accessible form of exercise.

It's a way to kind of reconnect to your neighborhood and natural spaces around you.

In terms of mental health and psychological restoration, it slows you down, it helps you find balance and perspective.

When I was working on my book, "Born To Walk", which is essentially about the transformative properties of walking including physical and mental health but also spiritual, social, economic, and so forth, I spent about a year and a half traveling to walk with people throughout Canada, the U.S. and the U.K., people whose lives and work and research revolve around walking.

One of the projects I did for that book was a three-week winter walk with an indigenous group in Quebec between two remote communities so that was about 4 or 500 kilometers.

(group applauding and cheering) Any kind of outdoor activity connects you to the human and natural ecosystem that you're part of.

It's not just the act of walking and it's not just the places we're walking, we're rediscovering connections to the natural landscapes in which we live.

It's a beautiful way to get into the trees and to get into the bird song (birds chirping) and to kind of lose yourself, and you forget that you're in the middle of an urban big city neighborhood.

And when you emerge, you feel like you've traveled somewhere else, and that's one of the really restorative things about spending active time in natural spaces.

It provides a sense of escape, you feel like you've been on a journey and I can get that by walking through this trail even though it's a 10-minute walk from my house and it's just a little green space in the middle of a big city.

Our aging society, and increasing healthcare costs and demands, and illnesses such as obesity and diabetes, and even psychological conditions such as depression and ADHD, all of these things, walking can help address.

According to many doctors and health research they've talked to, walking will provide the biggest returns.

So if we kind of reoriented ourselves towards encouraging and supporting walking, this will have a huge impact on our collective health in so many ways.

It keeps you physically and mentally healthy that can help alleviate disconnection and loneliness.

It's one of the real strong drivers of holistic health.

The problem is it's not particularly sexy or exciting.

It's just kind of boring, old walking.

You know, we're a culture and a society fixated on speed.

So when we think about how do we, as a society, do things to help aging populations stay healthy, we don't think about, "Ah, we should get more people walking."

All you need is a pair of shoes, and that's it, you know, you don't even need shoes.

(giggles) Ottawa has these amazing kind of signature walks.

What it's not so great on is the neighborhoods are that vibrant or interconnected and they don't necessarily have the walking facilities or culture that you would see in a Toronto or New York but we're getting there, and that's another thing I think the pandemic is kind of reawakening is that people are rediscovering this love foreign connection to walking.

The more Ottowans walk, the more the infrastructure and the facilities that walkers are drawn to will emerge.

(bright music) People often ask me since I write and talk about walking a lot, "What's your favorite place to walk?"

and my answer was always the same.

My favorite walk is always from where I am to where I have to go.

I don't map it, I don't follow a prescribed route, I just kind of have to point and the end point.

I think that's something that's intrinsically human that we've lost or are leaving behind to a large extent in our really fast, digital kind of modern world is that we don't leave things to chance.

When you're walking and just kind of following your instincts and natural cues, you never know what you're gonna see or do, you never know where you're gonna end up, and walking opens you up to a sense of discovery, a sense of possibility and that is one of the things I really love about it.

If there is a silver lining to these difficult and challenging minds to the fact that maybe we are rediscovering how central and essential walking is to us as a species, and maybe we're all gonna start doing it a little bit more and that's a really good thing.

(birds chirping) - Fall adventures are on the minds of many and we've got an idea for you that will take you above the trees.

Adirondack Extreme and Lake George offers six aerial ropes courses in a serene setting.

Zip lining is also part of the adventure.

(horn beeps) (bright music) (water rushing) (zip line whizzing) - So my name is Jamie Delong.

I am the Course Manager here at Adirondack Extreme.

We've been in business since 2007.

So we are an aerial adventure course.

We have adventures for ages six and up.

So you get harnessed up, we take you through a safety demonstration so you can learn how to operate the different elements on the course, how to properly the ride the zip line, and then from that point on you're out there swinging in the trees.

(zip line whizzing) (bright music) So our first four courses take about three hours to complete, and then to do all six of the courses, it does take around four hours.

We have multiple picnic areas on site so some people will bring lunch, make a whole day of it.

So I'd say minimum, you'd be here three hours.

We've had people spend 5, 6, 7 hours here as well.

So we use the CLiC-iT smart belay system for our adventures going on the older courses.

It's a smart belay system that does not allow for unclipping of both of your lanyards at one time.

Part of the draws the Adirondacks are so beautiful and so many people come here to appreciate the beauty.

This specific location, we're really lucky because, you know, we're 12 miles from Lake George Village, seven miles from downtown Bolton and we're right off the highway so it's quite the ideal location.

The Adirondack Park is just a very special place and yeah sure, we could've done it just south of the park, but I don't think it would have the same feel as it does inside this blue line, you know?

I mean, our business is in nature and everybody that works here loves being out in the woods and we want to preserve it for many, many, many years to come.

So the building style that we use again is (water rushing) to promote long-term growth of the trees, you know, it's all this great tension-style that doesn't puncture the trees at all.

Other activities are whitewater rafting.

I think that's the number one to do besides this in the area.

There's canoeing, paddle boarding, kayaking on the over 2,000 lakes that the Adirondack region has.

I just, I love the seasons.

I love the accessibility I have where I could be doing almost anything I want within 60 minutes.

(bright music) So I think that people come to Adirondack Extreme because we're well known.

We were actually the first aerial adventure park built in the U.S. so our brand is out there, our name is out there.

We have a huge clientele of repeat customers, and we can spot them coming in.

They've got their Adirondack Extreme merchandise, they're wearing proudly and they're like, "Oh, this is our seventh or eighth or ninth year."

"Oh, I brought my grandchildren here, they're finally old enough."

So we get a lot of positive feedback from out-of-towners and again, the tri-state area, lots of them are coming up here.

Our operating season runs from April to November prior to Memorial Day and after Labor Day, it's weekends only, but then in between Memorial Day and Labor Day, we're open seven days a week for all group sizes.

We get a lot of field trips, corporate groups, and just people out there looking to have fun.

- Each week, we bring you a regional artist, poet, or a musician to highlight.

Tonight, we feature Benjamin Paul Plante, a local painter and musician who's been drawing and composing music most of his life.

Tonight, we share his original song, "Living In The In-Between".

Enjoy.

(upbeat drum music) - [Band Member] One, two, ready, go.

(gentle upbeat music) ♪ You settle down ♪ ♪ And I stumbled in ♪ ♪ You sang a song ♪ ♪ I let it in ♪ ♪ You walked away ♪ ♪ I stayed behind ♪ ♪ In the in-between ♪ ♪ The cracks of time ♪ ♪ Ohh ♪ ♪ Living in the in-between ♪ ♪ Ohh ♪ ♪ Living in the in-between ♪ ♪ You settled down ♪ ♪ And I stumbled in ♪ ♪ You sang a song ♪ ♪ I let it in ♪ ♪ Ohh ♪ ♪ Living in the in-between ♪ ♪ Ohh ♪ ♪ Living in the in-between ♪ ♪ You walked away ♪ ♪ To know how I feel ♪ ♪ You walked away ♪ ♪ To feel the real ♪ ♪ The in-between ♪ ♪ Living in the in-between ♪ ♪ Living in the in-between ♪ ♪ Living in the in-between ♪ - That does it for us this Tuesday evening.

This is normally where I encourage you to join us next week, but "WPBS Weekly" will be on a brief hiatus from now until December so we can bring you our longest running show produced right here in the WPBS Studios, "Whiz Quiz".

Hosted by our very own Joleene DesRosiers, "Whiz Quiz" will be airing over the next several weeks in this time slot.

Keep "WPBS Weekly" on your minds because we'll be back.

We'll see you after the "Whiz Quiz" championship.

Until then, good night, my friend.

(bright music) - [Narrator] "WPBS Weekly: Inside The Stories" is brought to you by The Daisy Jones Marquis Jones Foundation, dedicated to improving the well-being of communities by helping disadvantaged children and families.

Online at dmjf.org.

The Watertown Oswego, Small Business Development Center, a free resource offering confidential business advice for those interested in starting or expanding their small business.

Serving Jefferson Lewis and Oswego counties since 1986.

Online at watertown.nysbdc.org.

♪ You settled down ♪ ♪ And I stumbled in ♪ ♪ You sang a song ♪ ♪ I let it in ♪ ♪ Ohh ♪ ♪ Living in the in-between ♪ (bright gentle music)