YEAR: 2009

SEASON: Summer

MONTH: June

DATE: 13

STATE: Idaho

COUNTY: Boise County

LOCATION DETAILS: Approx. 3 or 4 miles north of the Silver Creek Plunge turnoff on the forest road.

NEAREST TOWN: 16 miles north of Crouch

NEAREST ROAD: The only road that leads to Silver Plunge out of Crouch

OBSERVED: June 2009 above Crouch, Idaho. It was mid afternoon, and my husband and I were riding our ATV and dirt bike. Dave was about 200 yards ahead of me, and we didnt have sight of each other. We were on the main forest road that leads up the mountain, past the turn off to Silver Plunge. The road gets a bit windy up there, and so we didn't see each other.

I was coming up to a curve in the road where to my left is the embankment down to the river about 40 feet, and a cliff to my right. The only flat part was the road. It happened so fast. I came around a bend and saw a huge dark figure on two legs, upright bounding right up the mountain side to my right. The sound of the branches snapping were louder than my motor. I kept driving about another 100 yards, around another bend trying to catch up to Dave, who was sitting on a quiet bike with his helmet in his hand wearing a puzzled look.

" Did you see that?", I yelled struggling to get my helmet off. He said," yeah...it was huge, hairy and fast!".

We drove back to see where we both saw it separately, and there was evidence of something climbing up the steep mountain. Dave saw it bound up the river side embankment, and crossed the road as soon as he passed it. I saw it when it was going up the mountain side.

We both know what we saw...big foot.

ALSO NOTICED: Just that this was in the middle of the day.

OTHER WITNESSES: no one else with us. Just the two of us.

OTHER STORIES: don't know.

TIME AND CONDITIONS: About 4 pm in the afternoon. Partly cloudy, but sun was out at this specific moment.

ENVIRONMENT: Middle Fork of the Payette River, Pine forest, steep terrain. Next to the river.

Follow-up investigation report by BFRO Investigator Todd Strong:

I spoke to this witness at length and found her to be reliable and absolutely certain about her sighting. I can add the following details to her report.

The couple was camped about ten miles from the sighting. She was riding an ATV and her husband was ahead of her riding a motorcycle on a mountain road through a thick pine forest. Her husband saw what he thought was a man jogging on the road until he realized how big it was and that it was covered in hair. The animal turned to the left and ran downhill into the thick underbrush and trees towards the river fifty yards below. He stopped his motorcycle in the middle of the road and waited for his wife.

The woman, approximately thirty seconds later while riding her ATV and wearing her helmet heard a noise that she said was hard to describe. It sounded like a mix between a grunt and growl, then loud crashing and crunching of limbs and branches. She looked over her right shoulder and saw a large, hairy animal on two legs running up the side of the mountain to her right. The witness is familiar with all of the animals in the area, large and small, and knew it wasn't something she had seen before. When she first saw it the animal was only ten feet away but she couldn't watch it for long because she had to navigate a turn in the road. When she caught up to her husband they compared notes and both were convinced they saw a bigfoot. They aren't sure if they saw the same animal or two separate ones because during the first sighting it was going downhill towards the river and the second sighting it had crossed back over the road and was going up the mountain. They think it was the same animal not wanting to get trapped by the cliffs below them, between the road and river. They both returned to the location where it had run up the hill and found clear sign where a large animal had passed.

The animal was muscular with long hair that was dark brown, to the point of almost being black. Neither got a good look at the face nor could they tell if it was male or female. They camp regularly in the area and are familiar with forest roads.

These witnesses are reliable and I believe the separation of the ATV and motorcycle combined with the winding mountain road with numerous switchbacks made it more difficult for the animal to elude both witnesses as easily as described in other encounters.

About BFRO Investigator Todd Strong:

Todd Strong has a Bachelors Degree in Business Administration and is self-employed.
He is a Certified Visual Tracker; Level 1.
Todd has been an avid outdoorsman since childhood. Attended the following BFRO expeditions:
Utah 2007, Northern California Spring 2008, Olympic Peninsula Washington 2008, Northern California Spring 2009, Northern California Fall 2009, Wyoming 2010, Olympic Peninsula Washington 2011.
Todd was the Expedition Organizer for the Utah 2010 expedition and is organizing the Utah 2012 expedition.