“I believe this season we’ll be more ourselves,” John “Trapper” Tice says about Season 2 of Mountain Monsters, which begins April 4 on Destination America. “The first shows of the first season, of course we were a little nervous about that. We’re just old country boys. … [In Season 2] we were way more comfortable, so that made the hunts go a lot better, and we got into it better.”
The 14 episodes comprising Mountain Monsters Season 2 follow more adventures of the Appalachian Investigators of Mysterious Sightings (AIMS) in their quest to investigate, gain evidence of and possibly capture local monsters. Team leader Tice tells us that he thinks Season 2 is going to be “way more exciting than the first season.” Part of the reason for Tice’s enthusiasm might be his above statement about how much more comfortable he and the other AIMS team members felt in front of the cameras this year.
Of course, another big reason for his excitement is one of the key draws of the series, which is even included in its title — monsters.
“We have some great monsters this year,” says Tice.
Among the Season 2 monsters are the Kentucky Hellhound (featured in the season premiere); Sheepsquatch; Fire Dragon; Hogzilla; Shadow Creature; the Yahoo (“it’s a Bigfoot, but the only Bigfoot that really makes a lot of noise,” Tice explains); and plenty more.
While Tice says that, as team leader, he’s not allowed to show fear during a hunt, he did mention a few moments while filming Season 2 that got intense.
“We have a couple flying creatures this year,” Tice says. “You get attacked from the air, it’s a little bit different than what we’ve been used to. We chased a Snallygaster up in Preston County [W. Va.] that was scary as hell. He attacks from the air. I believe instead of the AIMS team doing the chasing in that episode, I believe it’s the Snallygaster that does most of the chasing!”
No matter who is doing the chasing, it can get quite challenging in the Appalachian Mountains, which Tice — an experienced hunter — believes may be the toughest region to hunt in the country. In order to navigate such terrain and find their quarry, Tice relies on a combination of old-school strategy and modern technology. Tice says that, having been in the woods all of his life, he can see things that others might miss — even the subtle turning over of a few leaves here and there. On top of that, they have the added 21st-century help of things like GPS, night vision and even Google Earth.
Before running right out into the mountains in search of Snallygasters, Yahoos or anything else, though, the team does preliminary research, which often does not get shown in the episode, due to time constraints. Much of this research involves interviewing eyewitnesses who have reported the creatures, either through claims of seeing them, or claiming to have video and pictures of them. In one case, Tice says, a witness even had a casting of what he said was a monstrous footprint.
Tice believes witnesses like this come to AIMS because “we’re not ‘suits.’ We’re just good old country boys like them. Any of the guys can usually walk up on someone’s porch and drink a cup of coffee with them or a glass of spring water and we’ll be pretty comfortable with each other in just a few minutes. We’re just people, like they are, and I think that makes a big difference.”
Mountain Monsters Season 2 airs Fridays at 10pm ET on Destination America beginning April 4.