YEAR: 1997

SEASON: Unknown

MONTH: October

DATE: 25

STATE: Washington

COUNTY: Kittitas County

LOCATION DETAILS: We were camped at the American River National Forest Campground and that morning we crossed the river behind camp and were hunting the ridge.

We drove south on hwy 410 to Halfway Flats and turn onto a road going into the mountains, the road that lead to the boys was caved in and there was at least a 500 foot drop so we went to look for another way in. We drove up this little game trail in my Bronco II, that thing can go anywhere, anyway we came out on this giant cliff.

OBSERVED: My son and I saw a sasquatch while hunting elk in the Naches area about one mile south of Halfway Flats on a Butte. I wanted to go back and check it out further but no one would come with me. By the time I talked my two son's into going back to look the snow was too deep to get back in.

There were four of us, my two sons and their friend. We hunted for about four hours and my youngest and I decided to go back to camp and drive around and pick up the other kids. I left my guns with the two boys and went back with my youngest to camp he carried a 30-30 winchester. The walk back to camp was uneventful.

We could see where the boys were but couldn't get to them by car so we radioded them to go back to camp. I forgot to tell you that we had three radios. I carry one and each of the boys carry one. We then heard what we thouth were elk coming up the cliff. We sat and listened for a while and then went to investigate. On the way to the area of the noise I noticed a tall dark tree trunk in the bushes, but keept going to the area that we thought the noise came from. We looked around and found no evidence of elk and decided to go back to the car.

On the return trip I notice the tree trunk looked odd so I asked my son for his 30-30 winchester. I looked at the "tree trunk" and the hair on the back of my neck stood up, I was about 25 yards from it and it looked like it had eyes and they moved. My son said to come on back because he had seen it earlier and said it was just a tree. We went back to the car and he imediately locked the car door and told me to get the hell out of there. He had told me that it was a tree because if the bigfoot killed me he would be next. Yes he said he saw it move and when it's eyes moved he said he almost went bananas. It was almost black with alot of gray hair. It was about 6-7 feet tall no neck very wide. I'm going back in the spring just make sur it really wasn't a tree. I'm about 90% sure we saw what we saw, but there still is some doubt. My son is 100% sure he saw it.

A & G References: Pg. 49, A8