The Light Beneath the Boats

**Scott Philbrook** (0:02)
Astonishing Legends Network.

**SPEAKER_2** (0:07)
The views and opinions expressed by hosts and listeners on the Astonishing Dead Letter Office are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of Astonishing Legends Productions, the Astonishing Legends Network, or any affiliated entities or guests.

**Forrest Burgess** (0:37)
When something unexplainable happens to you, it can make you feel isolated or alone. But trust us, you're not. For over a decade, you've been sending your strange stories to Astonishing Legends. And now it's time for our fellow legenders to hear them too.
Join us weekly in Blanket Forteana as we dig through your intriguing messages to the Astonishing Dead Letter Office.

**SPEAKER_2** (1:11)
Tonight's episode, The Light Beneath the Boats.

**Scott Philbrook** (1:15)
Tonight's listener, Eric, is a more experienced observer than most folks, which makes what prompted him to send this story in all the more strange. He saw something very odd that may fall into one of my favorite categories these days. I've been talking about it for years on the show, and that's USOs, or unidentified submerged objects, and on top of that, he saw this thing in the Pacific Northwest.

**Forrest Burgess** (1:37)
Yes, indeed. I know exactly where this is taking place here. The Pend Oreille River, the far northeast corner of Washington State and also into Idaho, it travels.
But yeah, it's a big old lovely river, and there's Lake Pend Oreille, which is a very deep lake, which I think that in Lake Coeur d'Alene, they do submarine testing. It's so deep, so very deep water is always very mysterious to me, like what's lurking under the waves.

**Scott Philbrook** (2:06)
Well, I always heard you were from that general area. So I think it's interesting that Eric's story starts out there, although the bulk of it takes place somewhere else.

**Forrest Burgess** (2:15)
No, that's true. In another mysterious place, as we've learned over the years, Alaska, lots of stuff on that. It has a scarier tone even with just their cryptids, their violent Bigfoots, and the large black ominous, dangerous evil triangle pyramid thing that supposedly is in Alaska. But so it doesn't surprise me that this story comes from Juno in the area there because so many sightings and other weirdness happens there. But yes, back to your comment, I know exactly where Colville is and Deer Park and all that. So maybe I'll meet Eric one day. But yeah, it's a very lovely area. You'll get a vibe like I might in Alaska. But just because I grew up around there and we visited all the places in the river and the lake and all that and they're all fond memories for me. So unless I was abducted at a young age and these are all just screen memories. So but that's another story.

**Scott Philbrook** (3:10)
Yeah, that's another story. And also our friend, Alison Joynlund, who is co-owner of American Ghost Walks Company, her company that she owns with her brother, they just opened a tour in Ketchikan.

**Forrest Burgess** (3:22)
Oh, great.

**Scott Philbrook** (3:22)
They went 350 or 60 miles north of Juno. But yeah, I think she just came back from setting up the tours there, which she sent me some pictures, it looks pretty cool.

**Forrest Burgess** (3:34)
I wish we could travel and visit them all, all the Ghost Walks.

**Scott Philbrook** (3:38)
I know, that would be a lot of fun. That would be a lot of fun actually. Well, maybe we can someday. Anyway, the other thing that's really fascinating here about Eric's story is that this is taking place in broad daylight.
11 in the morning, the sun's straight overhead, so right away we can set aside about half the usual suspects with lights under the water.

**Forrest Burgess** (3:57)
Yeah, just as he tried to set aside those mundane things himself. He blinked, cleaned his sunglasses even, thought it was a bug, didn't know what it was, but it's a different thing than seeing the sun reflecting off the waves, which you've seen a million times and we all have. And it's different, it doesn't move around like this thing did. And he looked off to the side to reset his eyes even. So he did everything he could just without any extra equipment, you could say.
I would have loved it if he had some sighting tools, binoculars or something, to get a closer look at it. But this thing stayed right where it was and it was doing its thing. It seemed to be under some kind of more intelligent control.

**Scott Philbrook** (4:38)
Yeah, and this is a careful guy on a clear morning. He's got some military experience, obviously. Something on or in the water that refuses to act like something you would see on or in the water. Forrest, I think it's your turn to read, so whenever you're ready, sir.