Brendan Jesus
Oh boy, have I been waiting for this episode. Partly because, obviously, it’s The Secret of Skinwalker Ranch! But also I couldn’t wait to tell you my experience. Yeah, you know what I’m talking about! Due to some of the messages I’ve received from doing this coverage, I will not say where this took place and I will not share the link to my Enigma report of it either. What I will do is tell you my honest truth and what I saw with my own two eyes. Take this for what you will.
I was out for my nightly eight-mile walk. After departing the river walk, I passed through the back lot of a CVS and headed toward the park. It was a beautiful day outside and I couldn’t help but continue to look up at the sky as the day’s blue sky slowly morphed into a blend of reds, oranges, and purples. The evening was particularly nice, there was a gentle breeze in the air, Art Bell in my ears, and a cute dog was up ahead. Nary a cloud graced the sky… except for one.
I made a mental note of the cloud because it was incredibly white—too white. It looked as if God had badly photoshopped a low-resolution .jpeg of a cloud in the middle of the sky. From the right side of my vision, I noticed something long and cylindrical approaching the cloud at varying speeds. It started quickly and then seemed to slow down. This was no aeroplane, my friends. The long white object had no wings and was easily controlling its speed. I stopped walking and, cautiously, started to retrieve my phone from my pocket. As if on cue, when I stopped walking, the UAP sped up to incredible speeds.
The change of speed startled me a bit, and my phone slipped out of my fingers. I bent down at the knees while keeping my eye on the, again, singular cloud. By the time I had my phone in my hand, I realized… this object never emerged from the other side of the cloud. From dropping my phone to getting it back in my hand I’d say about seven or eight seconds passed by. I stood there for a good minute until a police officer asked me if I was okay. He had also urged me to continue walking (this was probably because I was very close to the employee entrance/exit of the CVS).
As I went on with my walk, I immediately did the thumb test. The UAP was about the size of my thumb with my arm fully extended. I have no clue what I saw. But I knew if there was anyone I could tell and not be judged, it would be you lot. Thanks for indulging me, now let’s get into Season 5 Episode 7 of The Secret of Skinwalker Ranch “The Cone Zone.”
(Again, if Brandon or the History Channel would like I am more than happy to take over episode naming.)
This Is Not A Drill Pt. 3 (Pt. 1)
Rather than some boring preamble with the ensemble of investigators at the Command Center, Episode 7 gets right to the nitty gritty. Literally, gritty. Thomas Winterton is joined by Alex Seanson and Jared Lednisky, of Mark Construction Inc., over at the Mesa Drill Sight. If you remember from Episode 6 “Beaming Up” the team from Mark Construction had to stop drilling when they hit something that prevented them from moving forward. At the time of the drill issue two days ago, there was also the strange 31 MHz radio signal coming from deep within the Mesa.
Now the drills have been repositioned, the elevation and pitch look good, and we’re ready to drill. What could go wrong this time?
Nu-Salt, New Me
Later that day…
We join Dr. Travis Taylor, Erik Bard, Thomas Winterton, and Dragon over at the Triangle. Erik says they plan to “use rockets as expendable resources, then what we can do is direct those right at that same spot and see if that triggers the anomaly.” What anomaly are they talking about? If you remember the evidence from Episode 6, Erik produced photos of Nu-Salt’s lasers with obstructions around 100 feet in the air. (There was also a UAP seen at that time, but more on that later.)
And by later, I mean right now! Dragon notices a UAP high in the sky. The odd thing is, it’s not moving. The UAP quickly vanishes. A side-by-side image of the UAP seen during the Nu-Salt test is put up against the UAP Dragon just saw. It’s [basically] the same exact image.
At this point, Nu-Salt shows up. So far we see Tim Anderson, Kevin Weisman, and Jordan Spencer. Travis tells them about the 100-foot-high laser blockage, and Tim seems perplexed. Then we notice technologist Pete Kelsey is here. AND my new personal favorite people, OmniTeq CEO Jim Roytson and Sam Deriso, are also there. Travis tells the teams that the lasers will go up and rockets will be shot toward where the blockage from the photos was. Also, Jim Royston has three LIDAR devices that will be used.
The first LIDAR device is an aerial drone-based device that Jim Royston will operate. Pete Kelsey will set up, and operate, a terrestrial [LIDAR] laser scanner, which will be placed in the middle of the Triangle. The third device, operated by Kaleb Bench, will be a handheld SLAM scanner. (More on that third device later). All three of these devices use infrared light that can image things on the ground and in the air that the human eye cannot see. (Sam has GPS monitors up and running as well.)
9:23 PM.
Fire Management Officer Don Mitchell shows up, though his presence is fairly unclear. Erik heads back to the Skinwalker Ranch Command Center to monitor the cameras and the Kracken. (More on the Kracken later!) It’s time to shine [some lasers]! Nu-Salt fires up the first laser and, well, things are off to a crazy start.
There is not a cloud in the sky, all stars are visible, but for some reason, the laser has hit an obstruction at around 100 feet in the sky! Tim Anderson confirms that this should NOT be happening. Thomas grabs his handheld night vision camera to get a better look at the aerial obstruction. Only, every time Thomas points the camera at the obstruction, the camera goes black. He describes it as the camera “zapp[ing].” Suddenly, Erik radios in. The 1.6 GHz signal is back and it seems to be coming from about 10 to 5 degrees south of Homestead 2.
Now hold on there big dog, you are also probably wondering how, for the first time, Erik mentioned a specific location of the signal (rather than just, “it’s coming from Homestead 2,”). That’s where the Kracken comes into play. The Kracken is a set of five antennas that have the ability to detect RF signals and identify the direction. Unlike the normal RF Spectrum Analyzers, this can tell us what amplitude the signal is at, too.
Travis points his spectrum analyzer toward Homestead 2 and immediately picks up the 1.6 GHz signal. They note, like they have before, that this signal seems almost like a communication signal. Could this be more proof of Jeremy McGowan’s theory? If you thought things were crazy now, it’s just getting started.
Erik radios back over to the team, there is a bright white light above the Mesa ridgeline. Rather than moving left or right, this light is slowly descending. While Erik can see this, the Mesa is blocking it for the team on the ground. Or so they think. Thomas says, “Well, I’m about tempted to run up there and look.” “Do it,” Travis says slyly. Thomas heads all the way up the Mesa, but still can’t see the light. Even though it’s still bright and clear for Erik to see. That’s when Travis has a thought; what if this light is only being picked up by Erik’s infrared camera? Travis tells the team to get their LIDAR devices out and start scanning. But the light above the Mesa soon descends and fades.
Dragon says they should get started with the rockets. Love a good rocket launch. The rocket is fired and flies past the laser in an S-shaped pattern. Again. Suddenly, we notice the laser, which is still mysteriously obstructed at the 100-foot mark, is now split into two bulbs. Erik radios in, as he can see the split laser from the Command Center, and he says there is a significant increase in the beam diameter at a very well-defined altitude. Travis wants to shoot off another rocket.
They fire off the second rocket, and it, AGAIN, flies off in an odd pattern. Travis says he has designed, built, and fired thousands of rockets and that there is something incredibly strange about how the rockets flew tonight. As they prepare to pack up for the evening, Tim Anderson says that tonight was special.
This Is Not A Drill Pt. 3 (Pt. 2)
One day later, we join the Mark Construction Inc. crew back at the Mesa drill site. Alex Swanson says they are all set to go, and the drilling commences. They are currently about 100 feet into the Mesa. As the team sits under rain tarps, a loud THUD brings everything to a halt. We learn that the drill hit something hard enough to break. Could it be the drill bit or the pipe? And what caused this? Is it the same thing that forced them to reposition their drills two days ago?
That’s all we get for the drilling now, as Mark Construction has to pull double duty to fix the broken drill.
The Evidence
Later that day, we meet with Travis, Erik, Kaleb, Pete, Jim, Dragon, and Thomas over at the Skinwalker Ranch Command Center. The first bit of evidence Erik pulls up is from the [locked down] camera over at the South Tower. We take another look at the ball of light that was over the Mesa ridgeline and get all but confirmation that it’s infrared.
Pete Kelsey brings up the date from Kaleb’s SLAM scanner. The SLAM scanner is a handheld LIDAR device that shoots tons of beams out to craft a LIDAR image. Pete shows us some truly astounding data. While Kaleb picked up data from the ground and the sky, as it should, it also happened to pick up tons of data from about 200 feet below ground. Pete Kelsey said it best, “LIDAR doesn’t see through the ground!”
Pete shows us the isolated data and it very much looks like a donut. This is very similar to the data Jim got last year with a similar donut-shaped data set in the same exact area (though his was on the ground and then about 100 feet above that). Travis reminds us that this looks incredibly similar to a Lorentzian Wormhole.
We also get a look at Pete’s terrestrial laser scan data. Though I don’t understand what we’re looking at, we’re told there is a huge amount of data that reveals an anomaly in the East Field. Moreover, we see a similar anomaly at Homestead 2 (where the 1.6 GHz signal is coming from). They turn the laser scan data to the left and right, which is when they realize something… the data looks like a cone. They tilt the laser scan date up and it reveals they are in a freaking CONE of data!
What’s even crazier is how the cone closes off at the exact point where the laser was obstructed.
Final Thoughts
My first thought is that I don’t think they’ll ever complete the drilling over at the Mesa. They will consistently hit parts of debris that disrupt the drill and I think the season will end with no resolution to this drilling experiment. The Mesa light is incredibly odd. But the most compelling piece of information is the laser and terrestrial laser scan data. Whether you watch The Secret of Skinwalker Ranch as a skeptic, a believer, or a casual observer, you cannot deny how compelling this information is. If only ranch owner Brandon Fugal was here to share in the joy of these oddities.
Oh, and one final thought. It feels like they’re trying to transform Dragon’s identity. Most people have stopped calling him Dragon and refer to him as Bryant now, which is odd. He’s still Dragon to me, dammit!
