Field Notes From The Unknown: Hello, I'm Casey. And I'm Mackenzie. And this is Field Notes from the Unknown, a podcast about your favorite local cryptid. casey: morning from me and Marv. Mackenzie Hrubey: what a beautiful boy. casey: He's full of bees. I don't know if you can hear him purring. Yeah. Alright, Mark. You're a little heavy. Mackenzie Hrubey: Is he okay? really, I vibrate casey: That is twenty three pounds of large cat. Mackenzie Hrubey: Mm-hmm. Ha ha ha casey: Now he's just staring at me. No, honey, you can't Mummy has Mummy's gotta work, okay? Mackenzie Hrubey: I love when they do that. I don't know. I've got a cat here. Here. Come here. Come here. Come to the podcast. Come on. Made okay. casey: Yeah. Mackenzie Hrubey: Press. casey: You have your little black beauty. Mackenzie Hrubey: Resto. He does not vibrate. He's like, casey: Brecy. Mackenzie Hrubey: Mommy, put me down Mommy, what is this bullshit? casey: Yeah. Mm, Marv vibrates like all the time. Mackenzie Hrubey: You wanna stay? No. Nope. You're gone. you're fuzzy. casey: I know, I got cat hair in my mouth now too. Mackenzie Hrubey: All right. I am ready for a story today. casey: So are you ready for a story? Mackenzie Hrubey: Please tell me a story. casey: I will tell you a story. Mackenzie Hrubey: Can it be spooky if possible? casey: yeah, I think this one's a little little spooky. A Mackenzie Hrubey: spook spook. casey: little spook spook. So imagine you're hiking through California's rugged santo Luisa mountains. The sun's beginning to sink below the horizon, casting long shadows across the rocky ridge. Mackenzie Hrubey: Gorgeous. casey: Ryan? You stop for a moment to catch your breath and glance towards the distant peak. Standing there is a tall dark figure. It doesn't move, it doesn't wave, it simply watches. You blink Mackenzie Hrubey: Is it Bigfoot? casey: No. You blink, look away for only a second, and you look back and it's gone. Today I'm going to be talking about the Dark Watchers, one of California's most mysterious legends. Have you ever heard of the Dark Watchers? Mackenzie Hrubey: I have, but I really thought that they were also Bigfoot. casey: Really? I mean, maybe. Mackenzie Hrubey: I'm probably just I have to put on the brain. casey: Because Bigfoot's an alien, so Mackenzie Hrubey: No. No! casey: He could be. He Bigfoot's the Dark Watchers, an alien. Bigfoot's actually all the cryptids. Mackenzie Hrubey: Aaaaah casey: He just he's one of those like morph books. You remember when the kids morph into like a frog or something? You've never seen those? Mackenzie Hrubey: I think this was a apparently a missed part of my childhood. casey: I g you gotta i they're absolutely terrifying and weird. Mackenzie Hrubey: Is it is it the animorphs? casey: Yeah, the animorphs. Bigfoot's an anamorph. He just picks which one he wants to morph into. Mackenzie Hrubey: I really hate this. casey: I hate them too. I saw who was it? It was a reel that's like I don't rate myself on like how I feel on a scale of one to ten or one to five. I rate myself on how I feel on w a scale of anamorphs. Mackenzie Hrubey: Yeah. casey: And I'm like, valid, valid actually. Mackenzie Hrubey: I don't like the way it like takes people. casey: Isn't it weird? So you didn't read those as a child? Mackenzie Hrubey: No! Like I had heard of the phrase animorphs, but I did not read these. I really I feel for the kid that becomes the rhinoceros, so I just feel like they're emphasizing his nose in a way that I would not be very fond of. casey: Yeah, some of are like really bad. Mackenzie Hrubey: What is what and are they like superheroes or what? Do they just turn into animals and hang out or? casey: think they turn into animals and they like do something. I don't know, it's been forever. Yeah, I don't know. But back to the Dark Watchers, which is not an anamorph. The Dark Watchers are said to be towering human like silhouettes that silently observe travelers from the peaks of the Santa Luisa mountain range along the California's central coast. Especially around Big Sur and the Carmel Valley. Witnesses often describe them as standing anywhere from seven to ten feet tall, wearing Mackenzie Hrubey: Wow. casey: a wide-brimmed hat and a hooded cloak, carrying a walking staff. So they're like if Gandalf was the hat man. Mackenzie Hrubey: The fuck? casey: I think that's what they look like. If Gandalf was the hat man with a staff Mackenzie Hrubey: I feel like Gandalf would make like my night terrors of Hatman a little bit less menacing. Yeah. casey: Better? Right? Right. Mackenzie Hrubey: Yeah. casey: Despite their human appearance, no one has ever reported seeing their face. They stand simply motionless, usually during the hours around dawn and twilight, watching from distant ridgelines. Isn't that a rank? Mackenzie Hrubey: Why? Where'd they how'd they get there? casey: A Nobody seems to know. According to legend, no one has ever successfully approached a dark watcher. Anyone who attempts to climb towards one finds that the figure simply disappears before they can get close. Many historians believe s many historians believe stories of the mysterious dark watchers existed among the indigenous people of California long before Spanish explorers arrived. Although there is very little of these oral oral traditions When Spanish settlers settlers began to explore the region during the seventeen hundreds, they also reported seeing these strange figures figures and referred to them as Los Vigilants Viligans Oscoras, meaning dark watchers. Mackenzie Hrubey: Los Vihalandes Abscuravs. casey: Yeah that's it. Your Spanish Mackenzie Hrubey: Yeah. casey: is a lot better than mine. Mackenzie Hrubey: Still it's rocky some days. So they go the history of them goes it's not like a modern thing. casey: But it's ba no, it's not like a modern thing. Mackenzie Hrubey: Well that what are they wearing are they wearing pointy hats or like cowboy hats? casey: No, just like a flat brimmed hat. Mackenzie Hrubey: How old are Flatbrim hats? Like have they been around casey: I Mackenzie Hrubey: forever? casey: I d I don't know. Let me let me take to the interweb. But not like an Abraham Mackenzie Hrubey: I took the need of casey: Lincoln flat brimmed hat. Mackenzie Hrubey: Okay. casey: Not like a top hat, like a small top hat. Kinda like an Amish hat. Mackenzie Hrubey: Okay. We need a farmer now. Yeah. casey: But not a straw hat. Mackenzie Hrubey: What's that one character? There are a lot of them. I feel like there was one in Encanto with the hat. And then I don't know, the Prince and the Frog. Princess and the Frog? Princess and the Frog. The hat. I don't know. casey: They have been around for like the fourteenth century. Since the fourteenth century. Mackenzie Hrubey: Hmm. So the Dark Watchers are at least that old because I assume they appeared with the invention of the hat. casey: Yes, the hat was invented and then the Dark Watchers were also invented. Mackenzie Hrubey: Just appeared out of out of the spontaneously appeared. casey: Maybe maybe they invented the hat. And then they're just like, Well Yeah. Mackenzie Hrubey: my god Wait, are they aliens though? So like did aliens invent the hat? casey: think aliens actually invented us and we're just like they watch us from space. It's like we're they're pets. Mackenzie Hrubey: Do you remember casey: And what Mackenzie Hrubey: like the the little like the sea monkeys? Like you would put those little diaphana into casey: Yeah. Mackenzie Hrubey: Yeah, do you think that's what aliens think of us? Like we're just our little sea monkeys. Look at him go. casey: A hundred percent. We're were their little sea monkeys. Mackenzie Hrubey: Glub glub glub glub casey: I bet they're really upset with some of us. They should just pull us out. Mackenzie Hrubey: Probably. Trying to kill the other steam monkeys. casey: Yeah, they should kill those. So no you're good. Mackenzie Hrubey: Sorry. casey: One of the regi one of the one of the reasons reasons this legend has survived for so long is because it found its way into literature. So author John Steinbeck grew up near the Santa Luisa Mountains in the included the Dark Watchers in his nineteen thirty eight short story Flight, published in Long Valley. Here's Mackenzie Hrubey: Really? casey: yeah, here's one of the most famous passages. Heft looked suspiciously back every minute or so, and his eyes sought the tops of the ridges ahead. Once on a white on a white barren spur, he saw a black figure for a moment, but he looked quickly away, for it was one of the dark watchers. No one knew who the watchers were, nor where they lived. But it was better to ignore them. and never show in interest in them. They did not bother one who stayed on the trail and minded his own business. Mackenzie Hrubey: Cookie. So casey: Right. Steinpick Yeah. Mackenzie Hrubey: That's crazy. So Shandbert actually wrote about these. So like they're well known in their region. And casey: Mm-hmm. Yes. Mackenzie Hrubey: have they ever harmed s like that implies if you wander off the trail they'll get you. Is that and people like disappearing? casey: No my Not that I found that they harmed anyone. It just kinda seemed like if you got close, they would just leave. Or I I took it as they're like almost guardians of the valley. Like if you but I could be wrong. That's just my take on it. Is there just and not necessarily like I don't think they would hurt someone if they walked off. I also didn't see that. But almost like they would try and guide them back. But yeah. Mackenzie Hrubey: Yeah. That's crazy. Did did Cryptid Boyfriend see the Dark Watchers when he visited that area of California? casey: He did not. He did not report back to me and say that he saw anything strange and unusual. But he's also not looking for the strange and unusual. Mackenzie Hrubey: Would cryptic boyfriend And I think Cryptid Boyfriend would be in denial if he felt as much thing. casey: A hundred percent. If science cannot figure it out, it's not there. Mackenzie Hrubey: Yeah. Yeah. casey: He is I love him for that though. So Steinbeck's mother was also said to believe in the watchers. According to family stories, she would occasionally leave offerings of fruit and nuts while traveling through the mountains. On a ret on the return trips, she claimed the offerings would disappear and a flower would be left in their place. Another famous Californian, the poet Robinson Jeffreys Jeffers, also wrote about the mysterious shadowy figures standing along mountain ridges. His work helped cement the Dark Watchers as one of as one of California's enduring supernatural legends. See, I think they're supernatural. Like Mackenzie Hrubey: But if they're taking fruits and nuts, like, I don't know, then maybe they're living. Like you have to be able to touch something. casey: Ghosts can move stuff. Mackenzie Hrubey: I guess. So are they are they ghosts of something that used to be there or are they like spirits of the land or what do you think? casey: I think they're I think they're spirits of the land. Why they are wearing a large cloak and a top hat or like a wide-brimmed hat, I don't know. For fa yeah, fashion sense. Duh. Mackenzie Hrubey: For fashion. casey: And maybe like the walking stick has powers where they like tap it. They can I don't know. Mackenzie Hrubey: I still you know, if they're with a walking stick out in the woods and tapping on shit then I'm like, You're just a Bigfoot. What are you doing? casey: I'm telling ya, they all work together, you know? Maybe Mackenzie Hrubey: You were boomed with a hat, you know. Yeah. casey: maybe the Dark Watchers watch for like give Bigfoot the okay to like come out. And that's why we've never seen them because Bigfoot and the Dark Watchers are working hand in hand like this. Mackenzie Hrubey: They could be. They're like the dos amigos. Yeah. So the de if you saw a dark watcher, would you be alarmed or curious? casey: I would be curious, but you know, curiosity killed the cat. So I would probably just look, maybe try and take a picture, and then leave it be. Like I'm not gonna go Mackenzie Hrubey: Hm. I casey: I'm not gonna go try and go near it. Mackenzie Hrubey: Yeah. Are there any casey: But yeah. Mackenzie Hrubey: pictures or like snaps of drug watchers out there? casey: Mm mm. Mackenzie Hrubey: And is it is it can you see from the coast or is it only on the interior? casey: think you can see from the coast. Like if you're in the water, can you see them? Mackenzie Hrubey: Yeah, look on a motorcycle looking in, yeah. casey: I w wouldn't see why not. That's a very good question. What would you do? Would you try and approach them and like ask them about their s extended warranty? Mackenzie Hrubey: I would ask them if they if they wanna know more about their car's extended warranty or their hat's extended warranty. I would wanna ask them what's your recommendation for a hat for a large head? Because if you're seven to ten feet tall, you probably have a pretty large head and so do I, and it's hard to find hats that fit. casey: Can you make me a hat? Where did you get that? Mackenzie Hrubey: Yeah. Yeah. I just wanna get something like the thought off my face, you know? casey: W right? one of the most intriguing modern reports comes came from the Monterey Peninsula during yeah. Mackenzie Hrubey: Really? casey: Now n this modern one was in the mid nineteen six sixties, okay? Mackenzie Hrubey: This are pretty modern. casey: According to a local newspaper, a former former high school principal was hiking through the Santa Luisa Mountains when he spotted what appeared to be another hiker standing on the rocky overlook. Thinking the man might need help, he called out to him, but before he could get a response, he simply vanished. Since then, hikers continue report continued reporting similar encounters. Many describe an overwhelming feel of someone watching them before they spotted the tall silhouette standing silently on the distant ridge. Others say that the figure disappears moments the moment they look away or attempt to approach. Instantly no credible accounts. described the dark walkers watchers speaking or chasing anyone or even behavingly aggressively. They just observe. Which makes me think that they're just watching the land. Mackenzie Hrubey: Do they even move or do they just stand? casey: They just d they just disappear. Like I think they're just standing. Mackenzie Hrubey: Is there any chance they're like an optical illusion? Like is there any kind of weird phenomenon casey: So Mackenzie Hrubey: that casey: We're gonna get to that. Mackenzie Hrubey: Okay. Alright. casey: So what are people seeing? Some research s some researchers believe it lies in psychology. Para delucia Dira Dorla I'm probably saying that wrong. Mackenzie Hrubey: Par Peridol Paradolia? casey: P Pairedol? Mackenzie Hrubey: Paradoilia. casey: Paradoilia. Yeah. Mackenzie Hrubey: Yeah. That's when you look at some men like you look at knots like on a board and you think it's face. You must casey: yeah. Mackenzie Hrubey: represent faces. Yeah. Prodigal yeah. Yeah. casey: is the human t tendency to recognize familiar patterns, especially faces and human figures, in random Mackenzie Hrubey: Yeah. casey: shapes, as Mackenzie just described. Mackenzie Hrubey: Yeah. casey: Combined with the unusual lighting of sunrise and sunset, it is possible the hikers mistake shadows, trees, or other rock formations as human figures. Mackenzie Hrubey: Like I don't but also, like, why would you back to the hat thing. Like why would you see somebody in a fucking hat? Especially that kind of hat. Like what you know, like why don't you see a normal person? Like why do you describe it always in the same like cape with the hat and the stick? That's weird. casey: That if that is weird, yes, I will give you that. But I I so it goes back to that thing, if so many people report saying like seeing this, and then your head could just instantly go with, wow, he has a flat-brimmed hat and a cloak. is that a walking staff also? Like I feel like your head is your brain's just gonna recognize something similar and equate it to that. Right? That's what I What? You're a wizard, Harry. Mackenzie Hrubey: I'm a wizard. I'm a wizard. I don't know. Look, I'm gonna assume it's a wizard. It's a fucking wizard in the woods. casey: I would love to see a wizard in the woods. Mackenzie Hrubey: That's what I feel like these are. You know, like spiritual wizards. casey: No there's not A wizard in the woods wouldn't disappear if you go near it. Mackenzie Hrubey: It probably it probably can. It's got magic casey: Well why would it? Mackenzie Hrubey: and shit. casey: I feel like if you saw a wizard in the woods he has a message for you. Mackenzie Hrubey: Maybe he's trying to ward you off of an area like this place is dangerous and you should go away. Yeah. Yeah. casey: that could be. That could be. Hmm. Well, meteorologist Jan Nall of Golden of the Golden Gate What? Yeah. Yeah, we're bringing weather into this. Okay? Mackenzie Hrubey: Meteorologist? We're bringing weather into this? What? What? casey: Cause she doesn't agree. Of the Golden Gate Weather Service has offered another explanation. Although he wasn't specifically familiar with the Dark Watcher legend, he pointed to a phenomenon known as Brecon Spectre. This occurs when the sun is low behind a person, projecting an enlarging shadow into a fog in low clouds or low clouds. This can result in a gigantic human-shaped silhouette that appears to be standing on distant ridges. Often surrounded by a faint rainbow colored halo. So key thinks it's just a shadow project projecting off of someone else. Mackenzie Hrubey: Yeah, it's like a cloud reflection kind of thing. He's wrong. Why do they all have? casey: I don't know. I think they're sp yeah, I think they're wrong. I think it's a spiritual being. Mackenzie Hrubey: I'm stuck on the hat thing. casey: Let them have fashion. Okay? Mackenzie Hrubey: Ha ha ha casey: What if you saw a Bigfoot in like a dress? Would you be like I'm still stuck on this dress? Maybe they're just trying to be more conservative. Mackenzie Hrubey: I have heard of people saying that Bigfoot steal and wear human clothing. That's neither here nor there. Anyway. casey: If I was a bigfoot if I was a bigfoot and I could be naked all day, I would not steal human clothing. Just throwing that out there. While the Brock Inspector explains some in s some sightings, it doesn't explain all of them. Many witnesses report seeing a figure on clear days r or from angles where such a shadow couldn't f f form. Others claim multiple people saw the same figure at the same time from different locations. Mackenzie Hrubey: Well that's that's pretty telling if there's multiple witnesses from different vantage points. casey: Exactly. So perhaps the mystery will continue. The Dark Watchers never speak, they never chase, they never threaten, they simply stand in silence watching travelers from the mountain peaks before disappearing into the landscape. Whether they're ancient spirits, tricks of light or shadow, or something science has yet to explain, one thing remains if you ever find yourself hiking in California around dawn or dusk and notice a tall figure standing silently in a distant ridge, it might be a dark watcher. So keep walking Mackenzie Hrubey: They're aliens. casey: and whatever you do, don't look back. Mackenzie Hrubey: Huh. That's spooky. casey: So what do you think of the Dark Watchers? Mackenzie Hrubey: Fair aliens with passion sense. casey: While I don't disagree with you, I Mackenzie Hrubey: Ha ha ha. casey: don't think they're aliens. I think they're spirit beings from the land. Not that I wanna equate them to like a god of the land, but I think they're just there observing and watching they're people watchers in one sense Mackenzie Hrubey: I think it's I think it's crazy how many people have seen them. Like I didn't realise it was quite that common. casey: I I wish I would have ran into like a story of like the Dark Watchers helping someone if they were lost. Like Mackenzie Hrubey: Yeah. casey: 'cause I I want to equate them to that also. But I couldn't find any stories saying where I was lost in a Dark Watcher, like 'cause you think if you see a Dark Watcher and like you wanna go towards it and then he disappears, but you keep walking in that direction And then you see another Dark Watcher in a different direction and you go that and then all of a sudden you're back to your car. Or or Mackenzie Hrubey: That would be crazy. casey: the Dark Watchers are actually like hide behind so where if you follow them, they're just luring you into their cave or they're gonna disembowel you. Mackenzie Hrubey: Yeah. And honestly, I mean the some of the suggestions about like don't follow them, otherwise they'll hurt you, like that's a little you know, like that's ominous in a way that Yeah. casey: That's it's very ominous. But like I don't I still don't know if they're gonna hurt you. But again, if they did disembowel someone, we're n obviously not gonna have that story. Mackenzie Hrubey: That's true. Like you never know of the people that just casey: Yeah, we never know. Mackenzie Hrubey: went missing and were never found, you know. casey: And I'm sure a lot of people go missing in California. In the mountains. National parks. Mackenzie Hrubey: yeah. I mean any mountains I casey: Like that's a I feel like that's just a known thing. National parks are w yeah. Mackenzie Hrubey: Yeah. If you're gonna go out into wilderness y you have a risk, you know. casey: So I don't know. Mackenzie Hrubey: W that was casey: I don't know. Mackenzie Hrubey: riveting. I had you know, I I think I've heard of the Dark Watchers before, but I didn't know a lot about them. and I don't know, I would like to go shake hands with a Dark Watcher and figure out the hat situation. casey: I would also like you just want to talk to about their Mackenzie Hrubey: Yeah. casey: So Mackenzie, what would you rate the Dark Watchers? Mackenzie Hrubey: I'm gonna give A three. casey: Okay. Why? Mackenzie Hrubey: Three to five, because I They're definitely higher than a one because I think although like the Breckinspecter phenomenon was possible for some like the witnesses from multiple locations and different viewpoints of the same creature would indicate maybe something's going on. but I I I still think there's room there for somebody misinterpreting what they're what they're seeing. But it's it's it's weird and clearly a one-num phenomena, so that's that's where I landed the casey: It is. Mackenzie Hrubey: three. casey: I'm gonna give it a four because while I do think some of the sightings can be explained by science phenomena, I also think some are just the psyche of a person also. Do I think the Dark Watchers are out there an actual spirit being? Yes, a hundred percent. But I think some sightings can be equated to the psyche. And some can be equated to the weather and the science phenomena. It's just Mackenzie Hrubey: Yeah. Yeah. casey: Taking them all apart. Yeah. Mackenzie Hrubey: It's both. Yeah. Yeah. I wanna see one. Do you? Let's go. casey: So I wanna see one. Yeah. But I feel like if we see one together, I'm gonna be chasing after you because you're gonna be chasing after it. And it goes back to like the puckgy thing where you're like, I'm gonna go get one. Like Mackenzie Hrubey: Yeah. casey: you can you just leave them be? Mackenzie Hrubey: No. I want to touch it. casey: So yeah, I'm gonna be chasing after Mackenzie while McKay's McKenzie's chasing a dark watcher. Mackenzie Hrubey: I wanna pet that dog. I wanna pet that dog. casey: Yeah, yeah. So if neither of us come back when we go visit California, you know why. Mackenzie Hrubey: Mm-hmm. Either that casey: Chao. Mackenzie Hrubey: or we've been taken off by Bigfoot and we're, you know, Bigfoot's woman somewhere else. And we're living our best life, so don't worry about us. casey: Now adapting, living with a big foot. And then don't come looking yeah. Yeah, don't come looking for us. But alright, guys, that is all we have for you today. let us know what you would rate the Dark Watchers. And you can find us at Facebook, Spotify, Instagram, all the things at Field Knows from the Unknown. And that's it for us. Thanks, guys. Bye. Mackenzie Hrubey: Thanks for listening. See you next week.