YEAR: 1982

SEASON: Summer

MONTH: July

DATE: 15

STATE: Washington

COUNTY: Pierce County

LOCATION DETAILS: All I can say it was at the pull off area to get to the Maiden in The Woods, maybe someone from that area might know where that was. Like I said I was 13 and not from the area, so I have no idea.

NEAREST TOWN: I'm not sure, I was 13

NEAREST ROAD: Again not sure, it was a major highway leading from Snohomish to Mt. Rainier

OBSERVED: In 1982 my mom and I went out to visit my sister in Snohomish Washington. We stayed for 2 weeks during the Summer. One day my sister mentioned we were going to Mt Rainier for the day. she wanted to show us ice caves and a carving someone made in the woods called "The Maiden in The Woods". Anyway my mom, 2 nephews, brother-in-law, sister, and I got in their car and headed out. Before the mountain range was a valley that we drove down into. The valley was full of farms. As we drove, I began noticing these big wooden cutout siloutes of what looked like to me was a Bigfoot. They looked like those silly black bear cutouts people put on their front lawns. Anyway these were like 7 or 8 feet tall. I asked my brother-in-law about them and he said "Oh the farmers put those out to ward off Sasquach" Being from Michigan, I had heard about Bigfoot, but these farmers took it seriously. Almost every farm had one. It kind of freaked me out. Anyway we drove on, and started getting back into the mountains. After awhile we pulled off at an overlook parking area, this was were the "Maiden in the woods" wood carving was supposed to be. We all got out and started hiking up this hill into the forest. Evidently this Maiden was carved out of a huge redwood pine. We hiked all the way to it, only to find it had been vandalized and partially burned. Disappointed we all started back down the trail towards the car. It was maybe 2pm, and a sunny day. As we were walking down the path, my brother-in-law and I ended up towards the back, my nephews (5 and 7) and my mom and sister were in front. My brother motioned me to stop walking. And I did, and he stood there listening. I was like "What?" and he mumbled, keep walking and listen in the woods. My mom, sis, and nephews were oblivious anything was going on. So we started walking again, this time I was listening carefully in the woods and I heard off to my right, something heavy crunching an occasional stick, and what sounded like something stepping down into heavy forest bed, but it was slowly paced. My brother-in-law motioned for me to stop walking again. And when we stopped, it stopped.

This time my sister and mom noticed we were stopping, and my mom said "What are you guys doing, come on lets get going" and we said "We think we're being stalked" and my mom said "oh yea? by what one of those Sasquash things we saw down by the farms?" And we said "Yeah listen, start walking" so we started walking and after a couple steps, we heard the heavy steps in the woods again. This time my mom turned around and looked at us, and her face was white. My nephews didn't look happy either. Just then, my brother-in-law said "Let's get walking people!" Just after he said that we heard the most hair raising howl off to our right. It made the hair on the back of my neck stand up. It was a weird sound too, it was sort of like a wolf howl, only it had a secondary register note to it. Almost like it was bi-octave. Like two tones, coming out at once. All I know is we didn't stick around, we all ran as fast as we could to the car, jumped in and tore out of there.

Hearing other recorded Bigfoot sounds, sort of reminds me of the sound we heard. It still scares me.

ALSO NOTICED: none

OTHER WITNESSES: Yes, my brother-in-law, sister,2 nephews, and my mom. We were all walking down to the van.

TIME AND CONDITIONS: Midday, it was sunny day, with sunlight streaming through the forest canopy.

ENVIRONMENT: Pine forest, at the foot hills of a mountain range. It was fairly dense.

Follow-up investigation report by BFRO Investigator Scott Taylor:

Searched Google for "Maiden of the Woods" & "Mt. Rainier Ice Caves" and found nothing to disclose an approximate location. Assigned "Pierce County" for location purposes as that is the county Mt. Ranier is located in. - Jim Boudousquie

I interviewed the witness over the phone. The witness was only 13 years old at the time, and the incident happened 26 years ago. Because of this, he does not know the exact location, but based on his description of what he saw getting there, I would estimate that it was somewhere east of Ashford, Washington. There are a combination of details provided by the witness that lead me to the conclusion that this person and his family members were followed by a sasquatch. - Scott Taylor

About BFRO Investigator Scott Taylor:

Scott Taylor is a retired aerospace manager. He lives in Mason County, Washington. He had his first bigfoot encounter in October 2005 where he was stalked and later heard vocalizations.

Scott has attended official BFRO Expeditions in the Washington Cascades in 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2013. He also attended 2007 Central Oregon Cascades and 2007 Utah. He now organizes BFRO expeditions in Washington and has participated in bigfoot conferences over the past 17 years.

Scott will be leading a Washington BFRO expedition in 2025 (July 17-20) which is open to non-members. For more details and registration information for that trip click here.