Speaker 1: My family is originally from Sitka, Alaska. I'm the third
Speaker 1: oldest of five children, with three brothers and one sister.
Speaker 1: When I was fifteen, my dad decided to take a
Speaker 1: better job in the lower forty eight, so we moved
Speaker 1: to Blewett, Washington. We brought our two pet dogs with us,
Speaker 1: a Border Collie named Awnie and Chance, our golden retriever.
Speaker 1: This was the first time in my life I would
Speaker 1: call another place home. We moved into a two story
Speaker 1: house deep in the woods on top of a slight
Speaker 1: hill on the side of a spur of the East
Speaker 1: Cascade Mountains near Wanaichi National Forest. It was originally built
Speaker 1: by a mountaineer who came there with some friends to
Speaker 1: mine the gold and silver. It was notched into a
Speaker 1: cleared space that was thirty feet in diameter and was
Speaker 1: surrounded by a dense wall of trees. In addition to these,
Speaker 1: there were fruit trees and maples planted by a former tenant.
Speaker 1: The property also contained a chicken coop and a pen,
Speaker 1: again built by the former occupant. Our closest neighbor was
Speaker 1: a co manager of a logging company from Estonia. He
Speaker 1: was a reserved, polite man who was approaching middle age.
Speaker 1: He spent half the year living alone and blew It,
Speaker 1: and the other half in Switzerland. Several times he came
Speaker 1: over to cut down dead or dying trees that my
Speaker 1: parents were concerned might fall on their children or stove
Speaker 1: in their house, and in return, my parents invited him
Speaker 1: to supper and gave him homemade jams. My brothers and
Speaker 1: sisters and I were excited to move into our new home.
Speaker 1: In its surrounding there was even a hot tub and
Speaker 1: a swing on the porch that ran along the northeast
Speaker 1: side of the house. And aside from visits over the
Speaker 1: holidays to family and friends in the Deep South, I
Speaker 1: had never visited, much less lived anywhere outside of Sitka.
Speaker 1: Most people hear about the state of Alaska and they
Speaker 1: think wilderness. Despite Sitka being situated between the mountains and
Speaker 1: the sea, we weren't the kind of family who got
Speaker 1: out into nature. We did take the occasional hike, and
Speaker 1: we had our share of camping and fishing trips, but
Speaker 1: it wasn't until we moved to blew It that we
Speaker 1: started spending more time outdoors. Besides the fruit trees and
Speaker 1: maples that needed to be tended, my made a garden,
Speaker 1: and we all helped with it. We decided to make
Speaker 1: use of a coop, so we started with twenty chickens.
Speaker 1: We used the existing pen to raise hogs. Because the
Speaker 1: house was old and built like a cabin, it was
Speaker 1: in need of constant repair. But Dad was an organized
Speaker 1: and competent worker who patched the holes where vermin sometimes
Speaker 1: got in, and set the water and beams straight, and
Speaker 1: put new screens in the windows. One evening in two
Speaker 1: thousand and three, my brothers and I were outside on
Speaker 1: the apron of the long drive that led down to
Speaker 1: the public road, helping Dad bring in some supplies from
Speaker 1: town when we heard a loud, eerie scream. It rose
Speaker 1: in pitch and it lasted for several seconds. It sounded horrible,
Speaker 1: like someone being murdered. My muscles froze and my blood
Speaker 1: ran cold at the sound. Well we thought it might
Speaker 1: have come from close by on the hillside above us,
Speaker 1: and we stared at each other in the surrounding forest,
Speaker 1: but we didn't see or hear anything. The forest had
Speaker 1: gone quiet, or maybe it just appeared that way after
Speaker 1: the sudden, terrifying howl, and a minute or two later,
Speaker 1: the scream came again, and this time from closer in
Speaker 1: the woods above us. The scream sounded like nothing we'd
Speaker 1: ever heard before. Dad said it was probably a cougar
Speaker 1: or someone messing around. There was a cabin a mile
Speaker 1: or so up the mountain behind the house, and that
Speaker 1: was sometimes used by hikers and boy Scouts and a
Speaker 1: Bible School youth group. He thought it might be something
Speaker 1: like that, but nevertheless, he sent us inside and told
Speaker 1: us not to go out again. That evening, Mom and
Speaker 1: my sister heard the screams as well, and that evening
Speaker 1: my Dad and my oldest brother Sjay, saw to the
Speaker 1: feeding and bedding down of the livestock. Later that same night,
Speaker 1: after the three youngest of us had gone to bed,
Speaker 1: Dad was in the dining room listening to the radio
Speaker 1: while working on one of his paintings, when he heard
Speaker 1: the dogs barking somewhere at the back of the house,
Speaker 1: near the porch. This was unusual, as our dogs were
Speaker 1: trained and had already been let out for their last
Speaker 1: call of nature of the night. He went to check
Speaker 1: on them because he didn't want them making a big
Speaker 1: fuss in wake those of us who had already gone
Speaker 1: to bed. Well, the dogs were facing the back door
Speaker 1: and barking ferociously at something beyond it, with their teeth
Speaker 1: bared and their hackles raised. It had been a warm day,
Speaker 1: so the windows were partially open to allow in the
Speaker 1: cool evening breeze, and as he was dealing with the dogs,
Speaker 1: a horrible stench like nothing we had ever smelled before,
Speaker 1: walked it in through the windows next to the porch door.
Speaker 1: It was so offensive that Dad momentarily clobbered s J.
Speaker 1: Mam and I awake from our sleep. Arrived at the
Speaker 1: back door then to see what was going on, and
Speaker 1: right away we noticed that smell too. Something's rilled the dogs.
Speaker 1: Dad told us, judging by this stink, I guess it's
Speaker 1: probably a bear or a skunk trying to get at
Speaker 1: the live stop. He sent Sjay to get a rifle
Speaker 1: while we got some flashlights. We didn't have a backyard
Speaker 1: light and it was pitch black outside. Mom and I
Speaker 1: held back the dogs and Dad and Esjay stepped out
Speaker 1: onto the porch and swept the area with the light.
Speaker 1: They didn't see anything. No horrible visage lunged at them
Speaker 1: out of the dark. Even so, they kept their rifles
Speaker 1: trained alongside their light beams just in case. The dogs
Speaker 1: continued to snarl and bark and tug at their collars
Speaker 1: until we finally decided to leash them to the sturdy
Speaker 1: support beams Inside near the porch door. There were no
Speaker 1: signs of a predator other than the sickening stints that
Speaker 1: grew stronger the farther my dad and my brother ventured
Speaker 1: from the house. They checked the chicken coop first. They
Speaker 1: found the steel reinforced lock from the coop door broken
Speaker 1: and laying on the ground, and it looked as if
Speaker 1: something had literally twisted the steel loop out of the pad.
Speaker 1: There aren't many things that could do that to a
Speaker 1: reinforced padlock. A bear such as one of our native
Speaker 1: black bears might have, but there were no bear tracks
Speaker 1: and no claw marks on the coop and no bike
Speaker 1: marks on the lock. If it had been a predator,
Speaker 1: why hadn't the hens and roosters raised the expected cries
Speaker 1: and squawks? A human seemed the more likely explanation. If
Speaker 1: it was a human, why hadn't the thief used a
Speaker 1: little more traditional method of picking the lock or using
Speaker 1: a laser torch? And what kind of human had the
Speaker 1: strength to tear a steel lock apart. The door was
Speaker 1: closed when my dad and brother reached it, but when
Speaker 1: they went inside, the chickens were all gone. Not a
Speaker 1: single bird was left in the coop. Even more incredibly,
Speaker 1: there were no telltale feathers that chickens released when they're
Speaker 1: in distress, nor was there so much as a drop
Speaker 1: or smear of blood anywhere. A Dad had seen some
Speaker 1: crazy things in his life, but this surpassed anything he
Speaker 1: had ever experienced before. They checked the hog pen next,
Speaker 1: but all six hogs were still there, and then they
Speaker 1: did a cursory search of the perimeter in the storehouse
Speaker 1: before coming back inside. All the doors and windows were locked,
Speaker 1: and Dad told us what they'd found and said to
Speaker 1: stay inside the next day. I'll notify the sheriff in
Speaker 1: the morning, he said, and I'll check with the neighbors
Speaker 1: to see if any of them have had any problems.
Speaker 1: After we all went back to bed, Dad stayed up
Speaker 1: with his rifle. I think he was worried that the
Speaker 1: thief might still be in the area, and he didn't
Speaker 1: want to lose the hogs or any property in the storehouse.
Speaker 1: He might have remembered those strange screams we'd heard earlier
Speaker 1: and wondered if they were more than a coincidence. Well,
Speaker 1: dawn came without incident and with no further signs of
Speaker 1: thief thaves. Dad reported the theft early the next morning,
Speaker 1: and then he, as Jay and my sister Kathy scouted
Speaker 1: the area around the house with our dogs. No sign
Speaker 1: was found of either the thieves or the missing chickens,
Speaker 1: and when the dogs caught a whiff of what we
Speaker 1: assumed was the lingering scent of the predator from the
Speaker 1: night before, they grew agitated and pulled at their collars again.
Speaker 1: The scent trail led from the chicken coop to the
Speaker 1: woods behind the house. They followed the dog's lead through
Speaker 1: the dense forests, scratching and clawing branches for a short
Speaker 1: distance up the side of the mountain and down into
Speaker 1: the swamp at the bottom of a ravine before the
Speaker 1: dogs lost the scent. Try as they might, they weren't
Speaker 1: able to find the trail again, not even a track
Speaker 1: in the swampy ground. I suspect the thief chose that
Speaker 1: route to throw off the pursuit. While the younger ones
Speaker 1: were we were confined in the house for the next
Speaker 1: couple of days my parents and two other siblings ventured
Speaker 1: outside only when required to complete the necessary chores for
Speaker 1: the live stock. On the second day after the chickens
Speaker 1: were stolen, we went into town, where Dad purchased some
Speaker 1: home surveillance cameras and a couple of extra large caliber rifles.
Speaker 1: He figured if it had been, as he suspected, a
Speaker 1: bear or an unusually strong human who might try to
Speaker 1: steal more live stock or harm us, it would be
Speaker 1: better to have a stronger gun and bigger bullets for
Speaker 1: self defense. If trouble came, at least we would be ready.
Speaker 1: We kept the dogs inside and watched them for any
Speaker 1: signs that they were sensing something. None of us heard
Speaker 1: the trespassers stealing the chickens, so we doubted that we
Speaker 1: would hear them if they came again. The cameras were
Speaker 1: strategically positioned, but the dense woods so close to the
Speaker 1: house there was still a disadvantage. Nothing unusual happened that afternoon,
Speaker 1: or that night or the following days. Dad stayed up
Speaker 1: to keep a vigil with the dogs, while Mom did
Speaker 1: her best to reassure us that the boogeyman. As I
Speaker 1: and my younger brothers had begun to think of it
Speaker 1: would not come back to get us, and over time
Speaker 1: we became more relaxed and life returned to normal. Seventeen
Speaker 1: years later, I and many of my siblings are now
Speaker 1: convinced that it was a bigfoot. Back then, the question
Speaker 1: never entered our minds. Although we were from Alaska, we
Speaker 1: didn't take that sort of thing seriously. Like most families.
Speaker 1: We'd seen Harry and the Hendersons and heard a few
Speaker 1: stories on coast to coast, but I doubt my parents
Speaker 1: even considered the possibility. A week later, just as we
Speaker 1: were all beginning to settle down again, we had another experience.
Speaker 1: As the sun was going down, My brothers and I
Speaker 1: had gone for a walk down on one of those
Speaker 1: half paved, half dirt country lanes that connected us to
Speaker 1: Highway ninety seven. We were sipping on ice sodas and
Speaker 1: enjoying the freedom of being outside again after the events
Speaker 1: of the week before, when we realized the sun was
Speaker 1: beginning to set behind the mountains across the valley. We
Speaker 1: were half a mile from the house, so we decided
Speaker 1: to head home before it got too dark. It wasn't
Speaker 1: like we were unusually sensitive townspeople who were easily shaking.
Speaker 1: Since the trespasser from the week before had left behind
Speaker 1: no visible signs of his crimes, it was easy to
Speaker 1: believe nothing had happened, and the natural sounds of birds
Speaker 1: and crickets around us served to lessen any fears that
Speaker 1: we might still have been holding on to. But nothing
Speaker 1: in our previous experience had prepared us for our chicken thief,
Speaker 1: so we were still admittedly slightly on edge. We were kids.
Speaker 1: My brothers and I were goofing around, laying joke, sharing
Speaker 1: unrealized dreams, and generally enjoying each other's company and not
Speaker 1: paying much attention to our surroundings. The road we were
Speaker 1: on ran alongside Ingle's Creek for a quarter of a
Speaker 1: mile before looping back around the mountain toward our house.
Speaker 1: We'd come to an area of the road where the
Speaker 1: creek was calmer and ideal for fishing. A bear liked
Speaker 1: to frequent the spot to fish as well, not to
Speaker 1: mention the abundance of berries that grow along the banks
Speaker 1: of the creek there, and deer and other wildlife often
Speaker 1: came down to that spot for a cool drink of water.
Speaker 1: Where the creek didn't run as fast we were walking
Speaker 1: along and bantering back and forth in the growing twilight.
Speaker 1: When my brother Rick stopped, What are you doing? I
Speaker 1: asked him. We didn't answer. He was focused on something
Speaker 1: up ahead along the creek. Surprise and fear played across
Speaker 1: his face as he continued to stare in that direction.
Speaker 1: And by now my two older brothers had also noticed
Speaker 1: what Rick was staring at, and they had stopped too.
Speaker 1: I turned my head to look over at what they
Speaker 1: were seeing, and my heart caught in my chest when
Speaker 1: I saw it. Fifteen yards from us, on the bank
Speaker 1: of the creek, and hutchdown almost on all fours was
Speaker 1: what looked like a huge eight Now this was our
Speaker 1: first close up encounter with a sasquatch. I will forever
Speaker 1: regret not having even an old fashioned video or flash
Speaker 1: camera with me to capture what we saw. Even so,
Speaker 1: it left such an impression on me that I can
Speaker 1: still recall with absolute clarity what it looked like and
Speaker 1: how it smelled some twenty years later. Even in a
Speaker 1: crouch's position. The sasquatch was tall, at least six feet.
Speaker 1: It had a shoulder span of three feet across, and
Speaker 1: its face was hairy, but not as thick and as
Speaker 1: mad at as the rest of the body. It had
Speaker 1: a sloping and almost muzzled front forehead with a pronounced
Speaker 1: brow ridge. The eyes staring into us were slightly retreated
Speaker 1: into its skull and wore a grayish black tint. Its
Speaker 1: nose was flatter than the human's, to the point of
Speaker 1: being almost ape like, but not quite. The thick, stringy
Speaker 1: black hair on its head hung and flowed to blend
Speaker 1: seamlessly with the dark hue of its chest. It gave
Speaker 1: the creature the appearance of having a conical shaped head,
Speaker 1: and later, when I read about people's encounters with sasquatch,
Speaker 1: I wondered if they erroneously thought that it actually had
Speaker 1: a conical head because of the illusion caused by the
Speaker 1: mess of hair. I thought it might have been fishing
Speaker 1: or drinking, or both. Because its beard and chest were
Speaker 1: wet with water, and it seemed caught off guard by
Speaker 1: our presence, I supposed the noise of the rushing creek
Speaker 1: water could have masked our approach. We stood there, rooted
Speaker 1: to the spot with a shot. I'm not sure of
Speaker 1: how long the sasquatch eventually stood up without taking its
Speaker 1: eyes off us. Upright, it was even more intimidating, and
Speaker 1: we later went back with our parents and measured a
Speaker 1: branch that was closest to where it stood, and that
Speaker 1: thing stood eight feet four inches tall. As the bigfoot
Speaker 1: stood there staring at us, I got a whiff of
Speaker 1: that horrible odor, and it reminded me of garbage left
Speaker 1: in the sun for several days to rite, mixed with
Speaker 1: wet dog. I don't know if that smell is representative
Speaker 1: of the entire species or particular to a less hygienic
Speaker 1: minded individual, but several times in my life I've been
Speaker 1: reminded of that stench by similar odors, and I found
Speaker 1: myself looking around expecting to see one nearby. Considering that
Speaker 1: some of those instances have been in the woods, it
Speaker 1: probably wasn't too far off, that's my guess. The sisquatch
Speaker 1: slowly turned and started up onto the road ahead of us,
Speaker 1: keeping a watchful eye on us the whole time. That
Speaker 1: road was twenty feet across, but it crossed it in
Speaker 1: two strides, and it disappeared silently into the woods. My
Speaker 1: brothers and I waited for several minutes to make sure
Speaker 1: the creature was gone before we were willing to pass
Speaker 1: by That spot, and our hearts were pounding in our chests,
Speaker 1: and our limbs were trembling. My feet felt as if
Speaker 1: they had been turned into boiled pasta and might buckle
Speaker 1: it any minute before I reached the safety of our house.
Speaker 1: It was the longest walk home I ever took. Our
Speaker 1: long driveway passed through several patches of dense forest, and
Speaker 1: with each step I imagined that that monster would lunge
Speaker 1: out of the brush and rush us at home. Our
Speaker 1: minds raised with our mouths as adrenaline pumped the words
Speaker 1: faster than our brains could sort them. Dad tried to
Speaker 1: calm us down, and we eventually managed to get the
Speaker 1: whole story out. He told us that we'd seen a bear.
Speaker 1: There is no such thing as a real bigfoot, He
Speaker 1: told us. Bigfoots are a legend created by ignorant or
Speaker 1: sensational minded people who most likely made them up or
Speaker 1: misidentified other wild animals as these mythical creatures. In his mind,
Speaker 1: we did see a bear. It may seem unfair, but
Speaker 1: Dad had a point. He didn't need us scaring other
Speaker 1: family members out there in the middle of nowhere. The
Speaker 1: last thing we needed was a reason to panic. Still, unconvinced.
Speaker 1: We witnesses worked together to help each other try to
Speaker 1: understand what we saw out there on that road, and
Speaker 1: it's an experience that still gives me nightmares and panic
Speaker 1: attacks to this day. I am now a truck driver
Speaker 1: based in Washington State. I've been doing this for ten years.
Speaker 1: I liked my job despite the long, lonely, and often
Speaker 1: odd hours on long stretches of sometimes remote highway, but
Speaker 1: it's not really bad. In midwinter of twenty fourteen, I
Speaker 1: was traveling on the eastern side of the Cascade Mountains
Speaker 1: on Interstate Highway seventy seven. This is in north central
Speaker 1: Washington State. I came to work that day with instructions
Speaker 1: to drive a shipment from Auburn, Washington to Bigbie. It
Speaker 1: was a longer stretch of driving than usual, but I
Speaker 1: was glad for the work because the pay was good.
Speaker 1: I started my long track at around six in the
Speaker 1: morning Pacific time. I would need to make several stops
Speaker 1: along the way since it was going to be between
Speaker 1: ten and fifteen hours until I reached my end destination.
Speaker 1: That evening, I was cruising down Highway seventy seven through
Speaker 1: Aubrey National Forest and listening to the radio. I'd passed
Speaker 1: a few other vehicles on the highway. It was dark
Speaker 1: by this hour, and I had my high beams on.
Speaker 1: Fortunately it wasn't particularly bad weather. I was sipping at
Speaker 1: my hot coffee in my thermos. One of my favorite
Speaker 1: radio shows had just begun. My truck had just rounded
Speaker 1: a sharp corner and entered a stretch of a more
Speaker 1: level road where the tree line was further back from
Speaker 1: the highway, as much as twenty feet in some places.
Speaker 1: It was then that I saw a large, dark brown
Speaker 1: figure start from the side of the road one hundred
Speaker 1: and thirty yards ahead and quickly cross it in a
Speaker 1: few steps. The creature remained on the other side of
Speaker 1: the road as I passed it. All this happened in
Speaker 1: about four or five seconds, but I remember how surprised,
Speaker 1: even somewhat disturbed, I was at the unusual appearance of
Speaker 1: this thing. Even from the seed of my eighteen wheeler,
Speaker 1: I could tell that this thing had to have been
Speaker 1: eight or nine feet tall. It had a conical shape
Speaker 1: to its head. I don't remember the exact features of
Speaker 1: its face, as it only turned its head towards my
Speaker 1: oncoming truck for a brief heartbeat, but its eyes reflected
Speaker 1: reddish gold in the high beams. I noticed these too,
Speaker 1: were large and larger than any human or even a
Speaker 1: bear's eyes. The creature's arms were long. They swung back
Speaker 1: and forth all the way down to its knees as
Speaker 1: it moved. It crossed the road so fast I was
Speaker 1: moving at sixty five miles an hour, but this thing
Speaker 1: still made it over with space despair. I think it
Speaker 1: could have easily crossed back a second time before I
Speaker 1: drove by it, that is how quickly and easily despite
Speaker 1: its book, the creature moved. I was amazed and freaked out,
Speaker 1: and I didn't know what I had just seen. Though
Speaker 1: I'm certain it was not a bear. I'm certain it
Speaker 1: wasn't a prankster in a gorilla suit either. The way
Speaker 1: it appeared and moved so congruently for such a hawk,
Speaker 1: and the idea that a nine foot prankster with an
Speaker 1: extremely cut body would be out in the middle of
Speaker 1: nowhere on a late freezing cold evening on one of
Speaker 1: the most remote stretches of highway instead of a more
Speaker 1: important well travel route seems at best equally remote. I'm
Speaker 1: certain of what I saw. It was dark, yes, but
Speaker 1: I had enough time to observe the creature well enough
Speaker 1: in the illumination from my high beams and at the
Speaker 1: proximity that I did, and I'm convinced that it was
Speaker 1: a sosquatch. I didn't want to hang around this part
Speaker 1: of the wilderness with that thing I'd just driven by,
Speaker 1: so I continued on my way, applying a little more
Speaker 1: pressure to the pedal until I had left the mountains
Speaker 1: and that thing far behind me. At the next town
Speaker 1: I reached, I made a call to a friend of mine,
Speaker 1: telling him what I had seen. And although he believed
Speaker 1: that I had seen something and he knew me well
Speaker 1: enough to know I didn't tell tall tales, he didn't
Speaker 1: know what to make of it. I decided to keep
Speaker 1: this strange encounter to myself because I did not wish
Speaker 1: to bring ridicule on me or my family, or possibly
Speaker 1: jeopardize my job. At the time, I didn't really know
Speaker 1: much about size squatch, and I believe them only to
Speaker 1: be a myth and a tourist attraction to the Pacific Northwest. Later,
Speaker 1: when my curiosity got the better of me, I began
Speaker 1: researching the subject of bigfoot encryptids. Now I was amazed
Speaker 1: at how many people had actually had similar encounters with
Speaker 1: creatures like the one I saw on Highway seventy seven.
Speaker 1: I'd never realized a large number of sightings that were
Speaker 1: reported and continue to be reported every year, not just
Speaker 1: from the Pacific Northwest, but from all over the United
Speaker 1: States and Canada. In the years since. All the research
Speaker 1: and meeting people who were more knowledgeable on this subject
Speaker 1: than I am, it helped me better understand and absorb
Speaker 1: the reality of what I had seen that midwinter night.
Speaker 1: I still drive trucks for a living, and I have
Speaker 1: made several journeys through that same area where I encountered
Speaker 1: the sasquatch. I've recently shared my story with several family
Speaker 1: members and friends. I've also revisited alone and with others
Speaker 1: the sight of my encounter. I haven't personally witnessed another
Speaker 1: sasquatch encounter myself since then, but I know now without
Speaker 1: a doubt that these mysterious creatures do in fact truly exist.
Speaker 1: What they are, I'm not sure that they are out
Speaker 1: there even today, I am sure. I hope this story
Speaker 1: helps not just others who have had similar encounters, but
Speaker 1: also anyone who reads this and that this narration helps
Speaker 1: spread awareness and a desire to learn more about Sasquatch.
Speaker 1: Though I am lucky to have not suffered any deep
Speaker 1: cycle logical trauma as some witnesses have with these things,
Speaker 1: I nevertheless am glad to get this off my metaphysical chest,
Speaker 1: so to speak.