YEAR: 2008

SEASON: Spring

MONTH: June

DATE: 7

STATE: Washington

COUNTY: Pierce County

LOCATION DETAILS: Please read account

NEAREST TOWN: Greenwater

NEAREST ROAD: Fs rd connecting to 410

OBSERVED: My husband and I were up off of highway 410, about 5 miles outside of Greenwater (on the FS road right after the fire station on the left side of the road)around the first part of June in 2008. We had come from Tacoma and I was trying to get my husband acquainted with being in the woods at night, so we headed up to a place I liked to go occasionally to start a fire and cook some food and relax. It was a site for what looked like an old rock quarry alongside the right hand side of the woods. I chose the spot because it was fairly open to the road and there were also a large number of campers dotted throughout the woods and along the river at the time. It should also be noted that it was foggy.

We pulled into the muddy rock pit(we were driving a '69 220 Mercedes) drove in about 50 feet and then noticed something in front of the car. My husband seemed panicked and wondered what the hell it was. It was gray(light colored)big, human shape, visible right in front of our car no more than 15 feet from the front bumper. Even though I knew it wasn't human or a known animal, I told him it was a deer's butt and not to be scared. He has stopped the car at this point and then we both witnessed the creature climb up the side of the quarry at a high rate of speed. He was terrified, but for some reason, I wasn't scared at all even though I had just something unexplainable. I convinced him to park and we got the stuff out the trunk headed up the other side of the quarry and started the fire. By the time it was really going it was dark out and we were just sitting and talking. It also started to rain a little. I had the unerving feeling that we were being watched. That was when we saw headlights coming up the road and turning into the quarry. It was the sheriff. He stopped at our car then came up the side of the quarry in his truck, shining his search beam on us as he ascended. After asking what we were doing he left and headed down the side of the quarry in which we had seen the creature earlier. I noticed about a quarter of the way down he stopped and shone his light into the woods at which time the previously viewed creature was spotted standing at the edge of the woods. It turned around and headed back into the woods and the sheriff sped down the side of the quarry. I bet he remembers it, but I don't remember his name.

We left immediatelly. It should also be noted that I didn't feel scared at all and I almost forgot that I had seen the creature until we drove home and my husband reminded me. It was almost like my mind was trying to dismiss it because I didn't know or could make sense out of what I had seen.

ALSO NOTICED: The creature had a gray light covered fur, it was unusually foggy for that time of year, generally weird feeling

OTHER WITNESSES: Yes, my husband(driving, eating) and a Pierce County sheriff(driving, questioning us)

OTHER STORIES: no, going to research though

TIME AND CONDITIONS: dusk and night time. Medium fog cover in the quarry and light rain later in the night.

ENVIRONMENT: Old rock quarry surrounded by forest and mountains.

Follow-up investigation report by BFRO Investigator Kirk Brandenburg:

I spoke with the female witness by phone for 50 minutes and exchanged several emails. The following details can be added:

Upon entering the quarry they drove along slowly near the left side. Suddenly the large human-like creature was seen a short distance in front of their vehicle. They could see the entire creature, viewing it from it's back left side as it stood hunched over, but on two legs at the bottom of the gravel slope at the left edge of the quarry. They then watched as it used all four limbs to quickly climb up the long, steep, gravel slope to the top where the forest resumed. The witness expressed that no human could climb like it did or move so incredibly fast. At the top, the creature again stood on two legs, turned it's body and seemed to look at the witnesses for a couple seconds before walking bipedal into the woods and out of sight.

Diminishing light conditions of dusk combined with the thin fog made it impossible to see facial details, but they could see that the face was flat like a human and did not feature a muzzle like a bear or dog. The witness estimated the height to be around 7 feet and described the body as huge with Hulk-type shoulders, very lean, and long draping arms. The color was light gray, not white, with fur/hair length of about 3 inches and no clothing was evident. All of these features were confirmed during the second sighting in the sheriff's spotlight.

The female witness could not explain why she was not frightened by the sighting and does not understand her own reaction. She did get an uncomfortable feeling of being watched as they sat by the fire. The male witness was frightened by the sighting and continued to be unsettled. After the second sighting, the witnesses quickly packed up and left at the husband's insistence. As the wife indicates in her narrative, her response was possibly due to a mental defense mechanism engaging to help her cope with what she saw.

The witnesses are both members of a Western Washington Native American Tribe. The encounter has helped them learn more about and better appreciate the cultural significance of the sasquatch to their tribe.

The attached photos of the rock quarry are from April 2011, almost three years after the encounter. The quarry has changed some in that time due to more material being removed for nearby forest road reconstruction, but the photos provide a solid visual reference of the encounter location. Sasquatch have often been described as freezing in place to avoid detection by blending in with their environment. It's possible that the first sighting in this report involved the creature freezing in place to use it's gray color to blend in with the gray color of the gravel and may explain why the witnesses didn't see it until they were a short distance away.

The term gravel pit is used interchangeably for rock quarry in the satellite photo below.

About BFRO Investigator Kirk Brandenburg:

- Juris Doctor degree, University of Minnesota Law School
- BFRO Expedition Organizer in New Mexico and Washington
- YouTube Channel: StudySasquatch