Field Notes From The Unknown: I'm And I'm Mackenzie. And this is Field Notes from the Unknown, ⁓ a podcast your favorite local cryptid. ⁓ Casey: ⁓ Are you ready for ⁓ another a cryptid today? Mackenzie Hrubey: I am ready to be dazzled, not only by your beautiful smile, but by a cryptid. Casey: Alright, well I'm gonna I'm gonna dazzle you, hopefully. We'll see how it goes. So you remember back to our first episode Mackenzie Hrubey: Dazzle me The squink. Casey: Yes, this coin. And I have referenced this book on several episodes because the cryptids that come out of the fearsome creatures of the lumberwoods are just by far the craziest things that I've ever seen. Okay? Mackenzie Hrubey: Squunk. Wild. Casey: Well guess what? We are back to square one, people. We are back to where it started. And today we're gonna be talking about The strangest creature ever tore around a campfire, I think. The hide behinds. Mackenzie Hrubey: mm stranger than a squint? What's a hide behind? Like I'm hiding behind you? Casey: You're hiding behind something. Mackenzie Hrubey: What is a hypo N tell me. Okay. Casey: We're gonna get into it. I don't so the squink is creepy and cute. Not even creepy. It's ugly, not creepy. The hide behinds I think are creepy. Mackenzie Hrubey: It's just cute. Yeah. All right. Casey: So the hide behind is a legendary creature of n the North American lumberjack folklore. Mackenzie Hrubey: How the f ⁓ the lumberjacks are back. Casey: The lumberjacks are back. While the stories were officially published in Cox's book in nineteen ten, they were already being shared among loggers throughout the late 1800s to the early 1900s. As again, these lumberjacks are bored. They are hallucinating on some strange mushroom they ate. Mackenzie Hrubey: ⁓ yeah, they're bored. They're probably doing butt stuff. Yeah. And by the way, it is almost well, it's officially spooky season because it's after July fifth. Yeah. And so pumpkin spice is back. The pumpkins are out, and I'm really happy that we're back till Lumberjacks. 'Cause it just really fits in with that fall feeling. So yes. Casey: ⁓ yeah, that was like We are back, baby. I'm so I baked over the weekend and I'm like, ⁓ my god, I cannot wait for fall. It was great. Mm-hmm. Mackenzie Hrubey: Me too, that crispy air smell. The same smell I bet Lumberjacks encountered when they were seeing the hide behinds. Casey: That smelly smell that smells smelly So whene Whenever a logger disappears deep into the woods, some claimed the hide behinds were to blame. Mackenzie Hrubey: Are they like Tommy Knockers? Casey: ⁓ Get into it 'cause they're not really We'll get into it. Living up to its name, the hide behind is said to be nearly impossible to see. No matter how hard you look, it always seems to just stay out of sight. So it's almost like you see something out of the corner of your eye, but then when you turn to look, it's nothing's there. So you don't even is you don't even have anything to really describe it other than like Mackenzie Hrubey: Creeping. Casey: A smudge or like did you see that? And you're like what? And you're like, I don't know that Mackenzie Hrubey: Like a fucking shadow person out in the goddamn woods. Casey: Yes. They can stay out of sight, slipping behind trees, rocks, or even your own line of vision. According to the legend Mackenzie Hrubey: I'm like over here I'm like checking my periphery, like I did see one. Casey: Yeah. I who knows? Mackenzie Hrubey: Yeah. Casey: According to the legend, the creature moves and with incredible speed, making it again nearly impossible for prey to even catch a glimpse before it attacks. that creepy? Mackenzie Hrubey: Terrifying. I hate it. Casey: Like ⁓ I The hide behind is said to stalk anyone who ventures into the woods alone. Which could be said why people kinda do the buddy system to go to the bathroom. I don't know. It makes sense to me. Right? Mackenzie Hrubey: Yeah, 'cause fucking hide either hookah's gonna get you while you're down. Yeah, either a hide behind or a cougar or something is gonna fucking pick off your ass. Which is why they say that you should use okay, so follow with me here. So you get a baseball cap, right? You put that baseball cap on backwards, or you have a hoodie and then on the back of your hood you put eyeballs like big ass googly eyes, or on the bill of your baseball hat, big ass coogly eyes. Cause the cougars are looking for your eyes and they're gonna go to the opposite side of that, and then they're gonna latch onto the base of your head and they're gonna break your goddamn neck. So but you Casey: I'm following. Okay. Okay. Mackenzie Hrubey: do is you confuse the hide behind slash the cougar, and you have eyes on both sides of your head, quite literally. Yeah. Casey: It's kind of like confusing the like Freddie Frasbear when you play Five Nights at Freddy's and you put the mask on and he's like, ⁓ yes, that's an animatronic And then it's like, ⁓ no, that's a human. ⁓ yes. Mackenzie Hrubey: Yes. Yes. Right. I I haven't seen that, but I think it's the same concept. Yes. Mm-hmm mm. So try that. Casey: You need to watch it. They're both they're both really good. Mackenzie Hrubey: I should put ⁓ on my watch list. We we have a spooky watch list going. Casey: Ooh, add them. It's good. back to the hide behinds. Once it chooses a victim, it silently follows them until the perfect moment, then drags them back into their lair and devours them. Many s it's a cannibal. Many stories describe it as standing around six feet tall with a thin Mackenzie Hrubey: Okay. Okay. Cannibalism. Casey: almost unnatural slender body covered with long dark fur. It reportedly walks upright like a human and has unusually long arms, legs, and a tail. Mackenzie Hrubey: And a tail? Casey: And the tail. Mackenzie Hrubey: I'm just picturing like a fuzzy slender man. Casey: Yeah, but with a tail. Yeah. Since so few people ever claim to have seen one, d like the descriptions vary. Some legends even describe it as having a featureless face with glowing eyes that reveal the presence only in darkness. So if you see it you can only see it by its glowing eyes. However, not every encounter says it has glowing eyes. Mackenzie Hrubey: Weird. Got it. Weird. Casey: But it can it seems to be able to hide or like almost shapeshift into whatever it's hiding behind. Mackenzie Hrubey: Cool, but creepy, and I don't want to see it in the forest. Casey: Mm, yeah. When the hide behind f finally attacks, folklore says it bursts from its hiding place with a terrifying demonic laugh before quickly disemboweling its victims with a single swipe. Some versions of the tale even claim its how is so horrifying That it can literally scare someone to death. Mackenzie Hrubey: This fucker is terrifying. Casey: I'm telling you, what were the lumberjacks on? Cause I don't know. Mackenzie Hrubey: Yeah, it was I I don't know. I think they took a bad mushroom and had a really bad mushroom trip? Is that? Casey: I don't know. I don't know. The High Behind is portrayed as an incredibly intelligent predator because it has a lot on its side. If you can't see it, how can you hunt something? It can hunt you. It hunts almost exclusively at night, patiently waiting until the victims is completely isolated before striking. While most stories describe it as a cornid a carnivore that feeds on human flesh, other legends suggest that it feeds on something even stranger. The pure fear of its victims that they experience in their final moments is Mackenzie Hrubey: So it's like either ⁓ Pizzagate or the Monsters from Monsters Inc. Casey: What's Pizzagate? Mackenzie Hrubey: It was the whole thing about how there was a cabal of people living underground and they would steal kids and then scare them and then like eat the fear, which is the same plot as Mondras Incorporated. It was like a it like a stupid con conspiraci conspiracy theory from like the far right. I don't know, like ten years ago. Pizzagate. Casey: Yes, but now I'm thinking of Monsters Inc., which I need to obviously rewatch because I don't remember those animal those monsters f living off of it wasn't it levels of how many kids they scared? Mackenzie Hrubey: Yeah. ⁓ they would power the screams that came out would power the energy things and then they would use that to run the whole city. Casey: Wow, okay, I really need to watch Monsters Inc. again. It's been a while, and I'm like, what city? What's going on? ⁓ so yes, kinda like that. Like they just you know what they're really wanting is for you to shit and piss yourself and then die, and then they're like, Yes. Another little treat of flesh. Mackenzie Hrubey: Clearly. What's happening? Like wouldn't it be more efficacious to like not kill ya afterwards then? I I don't know. Maybe I'm old fashioned. Casey: Y why? Because if you're already dead, what who was gonna waste good meat? Not a hide behind. It's gonna drag you back to its cave. Mackenzie Hrubey: Yeah. ⁓ But like it'd be scarier for it to like chase you around and let you go and then chase you again, you know? Casey: But it stalks you. Mackenzie Hrubey: We still stock ya. Casey: Like the th the thing is and the way I'm understanding it is you know something is there. You know something is there, but you just can't see it. Which is already it's fucking with you. Like it's already there. Mackenzie Hrubey: Yeah. Or is it like the fear like tenderizes the meats and then the more fear you have, the tastier you are. You know? Casey: No, no. Not necess no, because like if you think about and I don't want to talk about like the abuse animals get, especially chickens, when they're sent to slaughter, how some of their meat can be so tough because of what they endure from like the farm to the whole process. Mackenzie Hrubey: That's a good point. I don't know, maybe head pines are into that though. Maybe maybe that's delicious to them. Casey: That could be it. I don't know. ⁓ there is yeah. Mackenzie Hrubey: Also, like we are not vegetarians, but like ethically source your proteins, that's all. Casey: ⁓ a bumper sticker that said Pigs are people too and I'm like, ⁓ fuck. I love pigs. I love pigs so much. And I'm like, they're the only animal that I would consider cutting out completely. Which I don't eat a lot of pork as it is, so Mackenzie Hrubey: I know how much you love pigs and they're really intelligent. There are a lot of bacon alternatives that aren't bacon. Casey: I don't know. I know. I eat I eat a lot of tur we eat turkey bacon. We eat a lot of turkey. Mackenzie Hrubey: Yeah. And turkeys are cute and gobble gobble and Casey: But Mm, I don't like birds. I don't like turkeys. I don't like chickens, and I think that's why I don't have a problem beating them. Because they're scary. Hi Mackenzie Hrubey: Trying to. I'm gonna do a turkey cobble. Casey: My good lord. Okay. We're not talking about turkeys. ⁓ so another creature often compared to the hide behinds is called the Wood Devil in New Hampshire. Have you ever heard of the Wood Devil? Mackenzie Hrubey: Enough. No. Casey: So the Wood Devil is said to be, and I didn't go too far into this, but I did like some research. The Wood Devil is said to be a tall, thin, human-like creature standing between seven and nine feet tall, covered in long grey hair. Unlike the hide behind, the wood devil is not known for hunting people. Instead, it is described as being a genuinely shy creature. And avoids humans at all cost. Hiding deep within the forest and doing everything it can to remain unseen. If someone is fort yeah. Mackenzie Hrubey: I was gonna say if we're gonna go into the woods, I'd much rather see that than a hide behind. Casey: Maybe possibly, I don't know. Mm. Mackenzie Hrubey: What are you about to tell me? Casey: Nothing awful. look so scared. It's okay. It's okay. If someone is fortunate or unfortunate enough to spot one, legend says it will let out it it will let out a terrifying blood curdling scream before disappearing back into the wilderness at incredible speed. Mackenzie Hrubey: Mm-hmm. Wow. Okay. All right. Well that's Casey: So again, maybe you'll just get terrified and die of like I don't know, you're just scared to death, literally. Mackenzie Hrubey: Die of shitting your pants. Casey: You could. You could just dive shitting your pants. Mackenzie Hrubey: Yeah, I I would chip my pants. Casey: I mean technically if you're scared to death, everything's gonna release anyway. So when you die, you're literally gonna shit yourself. Mackenzie Hrubey: Yeah, that's gonna that's gonna be me. If I'm out in the goddamn middle of nowhere in the woods and something screams like that, you best believe I have probably peed myself. I don't know to tell ya. You know Casey: It's gonna happen. Whether the hide behind and the wood devil are distant cousins in folklore or simply two different legends born from the same fear of being alone deep in the woods is anyone's guess. Either way, they serve as a reminder of some forests that some forests have stories that are just wild as the creatures said to inhabit it. Whether it's a simple way to say simple way for exhausted loggers to explain mysterious disappearances from of one another meant to keep newcomers from wandering off into the woods alone, the hide behind remains one of the most fascinating creatures in North American folklore. And if you perhaps decide to go out in the woods alone, I don't know maybe just don't Mackenzie Hrubey: Don't just don't Casey: Just don't. ⁓ so that's the hide behind Freepy Mackenzie Hrubey: Wow, that is terrifying. That's actually I think that's the scariest cryptid we've covered. Casey: I think it's the creepy it. But like if you look this one up in the book, it literally looks like a dog. It literally looks like an Irish wolfhound on two feet. Mackenzie Hrubey: How do Weird. But it didn't really it it didn't really talk about it being canine. Huh. But just it has the has the tail. Casey: No. In th the creatures or yeah, the fearsome creatures of the lumberwoods. That's and I mean okay, we know what the squonk looks like. We know all the other stories. There was like the Roomba Ro the Room Roogaroo or the bear that would explode. Yes, the gumbaroo. Yeah, we all knew what that looked like. So they're just great. Mackenzie Hrubey: Yeah. Yeah. ⁓ yeah, the gumbaroo. There it is. Yeah. Casey: I love this book and we're slowly working our way through the entire book. So it's great. Mackenzie Hrubey: I'm here for it. I'm absolutely here for it. I am lumber sexual. I'm curious. I'm terrified. And if I'm outside alone in the woods, I'm gonna get myself out of there last I shed myself. Casey: So I would never let you go in the woods alone though, so that's the thing. Mackenzie Hrubey: Thank you. You're a good friend. Casey: So, Mackenzie, what are you gonna rate the hide behinds? What do you think about these guys? Girls. They thems, we don't know. Okay. Mackenzie Hrubey: I'm giving it I'm giving it three and a half. I'm gonna give they them a three and a half. is that a three? But then he gave me the alternative variety ⁓ I'm gonna promote that to a three and a half because it has ⁓ in personality that could indicate we're dealing with a real species. ⁓ do you think? Casey: Okay. I think I'm gonna go with a four. Because just this straight fear you keep telling the story to someone over and over again, it could be psychological warfare. And I think ⁓ that's the thing that I like. Mackenzie Hrubey: Okay. For sure. Super creepy. Th this story was wild. I have never heard this before, so thank you for sharing it. Casey: Okay. Yeah. It was a fun one. But well that is ⁓ we have for you today. ⁓ again you know where to find us. Facebook, Instagram. Spotify, YouTube, all of them. You can go see us, listen to us, watch us. Not in a creepy way. Don't do that. That's weird. But yeah. ⁓ like, share, subscribe. Yeah, tell everyone. Tell your cats. Mackenzie Hrubey: Yeah. Yeah, it's true. Tell your coworkers, tell your friends. Yeah. Casey: Bye.