Blood in the Timber: The Brutal True Story of the Hunters Who Didn’t Survive the Night

The Gifford Pinchot National Forest in Skamania County, Washington, is a place of primordial shadows. Spanning over 1.3 million acres, it is a fortress of old-growth Douglas firs and volcanic ridges that have remained largely untouched since the dawn of time. To the locals, it is a land of beauty; to the Indigenous tribes, it is a sacred ground; but to those who track the unexplained, it is known as “The Home of the Shadow.”

In late 2024, two men entered this forest with the intent of unmasking a legend. They carried high-caliber rifles, decades of survival experience, and the unwavering confidence of predators. They didn’t realize that in the deep timber, confidence is often the first thing that gets you killed.

The Mentor and the Protégé

Gregor Sheborgost, 59, was a man carved from the wilderness itself. A survival expert from Portland, Oregon, Gregor wasn’t interested in weekend camping. He was a hunter of truths. Years earlier, he had experienced a “sighting” that had rewritten his reality: a towering, musky-smelling humanoid had watched him from the treeline before vanishing with a speed no bear could match. Since then, Gregor had been a man possessed.

In July 2024, he met John Thomas, 37. John was a bank employee by day, but his soul belonged to the mountains. He saw in Gregor a mentor—a charismatic legend who could teach him the secrets of the deep woods. By November, the two had formed a pact. They weren’t going to just “look” for Bigfoot. They were going to hunt it. They were going to capture it. They were going to prove, once and for all, that the king of the forest was real.

The Decoy and the Den

On December 22, 2024, the two men loaded their silver-gray pickup and drove into the heart of Skamania County. They bypassed the popular loops, settling at the remote Pacos Rock campsite. From there, they hiked miles southeast into a frozen, rarely traveled stretch of forest.

Gregor knew that winter was the best time for a “Close Encounter.” As the temperature drops, food becomes scarce, forcing the great creatures out of the high peaks and down into the valleys where humans camp. To lure the beast, Gregor didn’t rely on calls alone. He brought a ten-pound box of raw beef—a bloody offering intended to bypass the creature’s caution.

The Ten-Second Terror

The search for the two men began on Christmas Eve when Gregor’s cousin, Darlene, grew worried by their silence. Sixty volunteers and infrared-equipped helicopters swept the icy terrain. On December 27th, they found the site.

The tent was still standing, looking perfectly ordinary in the snow. But fifty feet away, in a cold, isolated valley, lay the mutilated remains of Gregor and John.

The physical evidence was a riddle of violence:

The Weapons: John’s rifle was found by his side, fully loaded, but not a single round had been chambered. He had been struck so fast he never even raised his weapon. Gregor, the survivalist, had managed to fire three rounds into the darkness, but his high-caliber bullets had found nothing but the trees.

The “Offering”: Inside the tent, searchers found the ten-pound box of beef. It was untouched by the men, but it had been “smeared in spices” and shaped into a strange, hand-pressed clump—a mockery of the bait the hunters had intended to use.

The Surveillance: Recovered from a motion-activated camera inside the tent was a ten-second clip that has since become the stuff of internet nightmares.

The video shows Gregor and John suddenly bolting awake, grabbing their rifles, and rushing out of the tent as if they heard a sound just outside. Seconds later, a shadow—massive, shaggy, and towering nearly nine feet tall—appears at the tent entrance. It doesn’t enter. It doesn’t growl. It simply watches the men run into the dark, then silently follows their trail like a ghost.

Analysis of the Kill

Search and rescue experts were baffled by the official ruling of “exposure.” A man like Gregor doesn’t freeze to death three feet from his survival gear with three rounds in his magazine.

The “Missing 411” markers in this case are undeniable. The proximity to water, the high-elevation valley, and the “hand-shaped” bait suggest a predator that was not only physically superior but psychologically mocking. It hadn’t fallen for the meat; it had used the meat to lure the men out into the open where they had no visibility.

Bigfoot researchers argue that the creature had likely been stalking them since they parked the truck. It waited for the night, for the cold, and for the moment the “hunters” felt most prepared. It stripped them of their mentor-protégé dynamic and turned them into panicked prey in a matter of seconds.

Conclusion: The Price of the Hunt

Gregor Sheborgost was a “young grandpa” who loved to make his family laugh. John Thomas was a respectable professional with a bright future. They weren’t villains; they were explorers who underestimated the unknown.

The Skamania County Sheriff’s Office receives hundreds of sightings a year, and in some parts of Washington, it is a felony to harm a “Sasquatch.” One has to wonder: are those laws protecting the creatures, or are they a warning to hunters that some things in the woods aren’t meant to be trophies?

Gregor and John found what they were looking for. And in the final seconds of their lives, they realized that in the dark of the Gifford Pinchot, there is only one king. The forest doesn’t care about your caliber, your experience, or your fame. It only cares about the silence it keeps.