YEAR: 2011

SEASON: Fall

MONTH: November

DATE: 9

STATE: Washington

COUNTY: Skagit County

LOCATION DETAILS: This was on the side of the North Cascades Highway close to Rainy Pass. I am not completely sure.

NEAREST TOWN: Newhalem or Mazama

NEAREST ROAD: On Hwy 20

OBSERVED: I was driving on the North Cascades Highway (HWY 20) traveling east across the pass. It was close to twilight and it was clear and cold. While close to Rainy Pass (maybe a bit before), I see something that strikes me as not normal. It is about 1/4 mile up the highway on the side of the road. At first, I think that it is a large man wearing dark, winter clothing.
As I got closer, I see that it was clearly not a man.
But just before I got a better look, it slipped down the side of the road into the ravine.
And that was when I knew what I had just seen.
The way it moved was sylph-like. Almost as if it shimmered away.
I looked back to where it had been, and it had completely disappeared.

Now, if that isn't enough for you, there's more.
About two miles further up the mountain pass, I saw another.
It was a little smaller, but moved in the same graceful manner as it quickly went down the side of the mountain out of my view. The leaves on the tree that it had been next to still gently shook as I drove by.

I cannot say with any surety what these creatures looked like exactly. But they were definitely not bears - too tall and far too graceful. They were not human - too graceful and quick.
They were both dark though. If they were at all reddish, I did not notice. They both seemed to be very dark brown. The smaller one darker than the bigger one.

If I was to guess size, I would say the larger one was 6'4" - 6'8" and probably around 250 - 300 lean pounds. The smaller was perhaps 6'0? And around 200 lbs maybe?

The thing that was so completely out of the ordinary, was the manner in which they moved. I have never seen something so large move so fluidly. Picture the way an otter or penguin moves in the water. It was sort of like that.

OTHER WITNESSES: no.

TIME AND CONDITIONS: It was around 4 - 4:30 PM. Close to twilight. The weather was clear and cold.

ENVIRONMENT: Mountainous area. I saw them both on the side, where they quickly moved down the side of the mountain. The area was rocky and forested. It was very quiet. We had not seen another vehicle for approx. 60 - 70 miles.

Follow-up investigation report by BFRO Investigator Laura Roeder:

I spoke with the witness, a business owner from Mazama, WA, for about 30 minutes over the phone. She has lived in this area for about 20 years and has driven the pass many times, but this was the first time she had seen anything like this. She was driving home eastbound from their business, which is on the west side of the pass, with her two children who were in the back seat. It was dusk.

She stated that there was enough ambient light at the time (sunset time on this day for the region was at approximately 4:40pm) to see the figure without the headlights just yet. The upright figure she first saw on the left side of the highway abut a 1/4 mile away was definitely not a bear, as she has seen bears up close in her yard. It was more vertical than anything else, so it could not have been a deer or elk. This looked like a very tall man, but was dark and all one color. She stated that it appeared to be facing her, but it was not close enough so she could see any details of the face. It appeared to be all very dark brown and with a lean build.

She described the gully-type area to the left of the highway where it appeared as extremely steep and rocky. I am personally familiar with the area near Rainy Pass, having traveled it about a month before this sighting last year. The fluidity of movement that she described as it moved down and away from the road convinced her that this could not be a human, as she has never seen a person move so smoothly and quickly down such rugged terrain. She was so startled by what she saw that she wondered if she should stop, but reconsidered as she thought about her children.

The witness stated that in trips across this pass more recently, she determined that the distance between the first figure seen and the second one was probably a bit greater than she had reported- more like 3 miles, than 2 as she had originally written. She mentioned that every time she goes by this area now, she recollects the experience and looks for more evidence of activity like this.

After the first sighting, she continued driving, feeling kind of in shock, as she realized what she likely had likely just seen. Her children did not see the figure as they were in the back seat . Approximately 3 miles east, the area to the left of the highway was still steep gully-type terrain, and she saw another smaller dark figure, all one color, also lean, and also on the left side of the road. She could not tell if this figure was facing her, but it seemed slightly smaller than the one she had just seen previously, and it too suddenly "flowed" smoothly and lightning-fast down into the rocky gully. She said that unlike the other figure she saw, this one appeared to be doing something in the trees. There were small trees where it had been standing, and they were still moving from the figure's passing when she drove past that point. The gully was so steep a person would have had to turn around and climb down, rather than step forward down it.

She was very shocked, especially since she now had two strange instances of very graceful, large, fast figures almost "melting" down a remote, steep slope in the middle of nowhere. There were no cars parked alongside the highway in this area, nor had she passed any for about 60 or 70 miles. Her children made no indication of seeing this figure, either.

Based on the remoteness of the location, the witness' description of the two figures' appearance and extremely rapid and fluid movement, as well as the terrain, I believe the witness likely saw two sasquatches at this location along Highway 20.

About BFRO Investigator Laura Roeder:

Laura Roeder is an IT analyst in the aerospace industry living near Seattle, Washington. She had a Class A sighting while cave hunting near Mt. Adams in 2004 and another on a private group expedition in 2012. She has also had multiple Class B encounters in southwest Washington and various locations around Washington state over a span of approximately 20 years. She attended the 2012 Western Washington BFRO expedition, co-hosted the 2013 WA Cascades Area #1 expedition, and assisted at the 2013 WA Area #2 and 2013 Olympic Peninsula expeditions. She continues to do research and attend expeditions as available.