YEAR: 2010

SEASON: Fall

MONTH: October

DATE: 10/22/2010

STATE: Washington

COUNTY: Skagit County

LOCATION DETAILS: off 530 at the gas station, go up road 18 follow it up till you see the sign for road 1855, stay on this road and follow it all the way to the top of the ridge. There has been people camping so its well used.

NEAREST TOWN: Darrington,WA.

NEAREST ROAD: Hwy 530

OBSERVED: up hunting on road 1855 above Darrington, WA. Friday Oct.22 2010. mid day, 4200 ft.elv. We were at the end of the road on top of a ridge, my buddy was checking out a steep canyon on one side of the ridge and I hiked down about 40 yrds. down the other side (east). I was just looking around for deer or bear, this area is well known for black bear, one had been shot a week before in this area. I heard some branches breaking down from me about 100 yrds. so I started watching in the direction of the noise. I saw a few tree branches moving, not like from wind and all of a sudden I saw what looked like a brownish/black shoulder and head of something, I don't know for sure what it was but I know that I've been in the woods a lot in my 51 years and nothing ever before made the hair on my neck stand up in the woods like it did that day. Also there was a faint odor of rotten meat or rotten trash??? I'm not sure if it was a bigfoot or not but it might be worth checking out. We were only there for about 15 minutes as it was starting to rain hard and the clouds were moving in and we couldn't see for hunting.

ALSO NOTICED: none

OTHER WITNESSES: just me, I didn't say anything to my hunting buddy as he thinks things like this are not true.

OTHER STORIES: not that I have heard but I am going to check this out.

TIME AND CONDITIONS: mid day,rainy and fog and clouds

ENVIRONMENT: elev.4200 ft. thick woods but open areas on the west side of the road. enough so that you glass the area and see animal trails running all over the area.

Follow-up investigation report by BFRO Investigator Tyler Bounds:

I made contact with the witness via telephone on November 4, 2010, and discussed with him at length the details of his encounter. I found him to be very familiar with the animals of western Washington, and an experienced outdoorsman, having spent his adult life traveling and hunting throughout the forests of Washington. I feel that his familiarity with the fauna and terrain greatly adds to the credibility of him possibly encountering a sasquatch.

On a typical northwestern cloudy gray afternoon on October 22, 2010, the witness and a hunting partner were hunting for deer and black bear west of Darrington. After they made the final turn onto the mountain road that led to their destination, they saw a truck was coming down the road towards them. They passed each other without incident or exchanging words. They continued on to their chosen destination, the end of the road, which terminated in an old logging landing atop a ridge (elevation 4500') that runs roughly NW-SE. They noticed that this had been recently occupied, as there were still hot coals in a firepit there, which they doused with water.

They commenced their hunt, splitting up to glass opposite sides of the ridge. The witness took the NE facing side, while his partner took the SW side. The witness hiked up a small knoll until he found a good spot from which to scan the hillside below. While hiking up he noticed a bad odor, akin to "rotting garbage", and also experienced an unexplainable "bad feeling in my gut, like I suddenly felt sick to my stomach".

From this spot, he was looking downslope, noticing many animal trails criss-crossing the slope below, which was a mixture of dense forest and some more open areas. After 1 to 2 minutes, the witness heard a "crunching and crashing" through the trees, some 40-50 yards below him and, assuming it to be a bear, observed something moving through the trees, with a black head, shoulders, and upper back moving downhill away from him. It was walking upright, "sort of lumbering along", and had a "cone-shaped head, but not pointy" set directly on very wide shoulders, "with no neck at all, and the head looked like it was too small for the shoulders it was on." He did not notice any ears. It was entirely black in color, but he was able to make out the muscle definition of its shoulders and upper back, which appeared to be covered in hair that "looked thick, on the back and shoulders", and also appeared to be "matted and dirty, but not stringy." It continued downhill away from him, moving through the second-growth evergreen trees with apparent ease and speed, "like it was moving through tissue paper", until it was lost from sight, but he was able to hear it traveling through the trees for some time after that. His visual observation lasted a total of 3 to 5 seconds. He also noticed that it was nearly as tall as the trees there, which he estimated to be between 10 and 14 feet tall, guessing that the creature was 7 to 9 feet tall, at which point he was sure it could not be a bear.

After everything was quiet, the witness was quite unnerved, enough to compel him to return to their vehicle. At this point, low clouds had started rolling in, compromising visibility, and it had begun to rain. His partner soon returned to the vehicle as well, and they decided to call it a day, due to the adverse weather. The witness did not share with his partner what he had experienced, since he knew that he wouldn't believe him, and didn't want to get constantly barraged with ridicule on the way out of the mountains. The entire time spent by the witness at the spot was no more than 15 minutes.

Upon returning home, and after thinking about the events preceding his visual observation, the witness hypothesized that perhaps the creature was approaching, or had already approached, the abandoned campsite, when their arrival interrupted it, since it was so close to the ridgetop, and was moving downhill away from it. He thought that there was also the possibility that perhaps the previous occupants had encountered the animal, thus their haste in leaving. He also thought that possibly they were hunters as well, and had perhaps made a kill in the area, attracting the animal. Of course, these are all just theories, but to me very plausible, since all of the scenarios are consistent with previously observed sasquatch behavior.

Considering the area where the observation occurred, which has a history of encounters, and has also been used recently as a basecamp for several smaller outings and a couple larger expeditions that I have either participated in or organized, and taking into account the witness' considerable outdoor experience, I do think that it is highly probable that he did in fact have a close encounter with a sasquatch.

About BFRO Investigator Tyler Bounds:

Tyler Wm. Bounds is a lifelong outdoorsman and explorer, spending many years hiking, backpacking, biking and paddling throughout the Pacific Northwest and Alaska. He has attended the Washington Cascades Expeditions in 2008 and 2009, the Washington Olympic Peninsula Expeditions in 2008, 2009, 2010 (organizer) and both 2011 WA expeditions (organizer), Oregon 2010 Expedition (co-organizer with Matt Pruitt), and numerous smaller trips, both solo and with other Investigators and BFRO members, investigating Bigfoot sightings and activity. Also Outdoor Technician, Production Associate and Fixer on the popular Animal Planet series "Finding Bigfoot", 2010-current.