YEAR: 1980

SEASON: Fall

MONTH: September

STATE: Idaho

COUNTY: Valley County

LOCATION DETAILS: Confidential

NEAREST TOWN: McCall

OBSERVED: My best friend and I had an Bigfoot encounter back in the early 1980’s. We were fishing outside of McCall Idaho at an upper mountain lake, when it started to get so dark we decided to headback to the truck. As we got down the trail, a storm started to move in, and it became very dark, started to rain with high winds. Unfortunately, we did not bring a flashlight and got off the trail by accident. We were moving slowly through very thick brush when we heard a noise ahead of us. Some sort of animal was stepping away, we thought it might be a deer, until it turned around and looked at us. It was so dark that night, you couldn’t see your hand in front of your face. But when this animal turned to look at us, it eyes were bright fluorescent green, illuminated like flashlights! We could tell we were in a large flat area, and these bright green eyes were taller than we were, 7-8 feet off the ground, and about 50-60 feet away. My friend and I had hunted for years together, and we both felt comfortable in the woods. But all of a sudden we both got a bad feeling, and we felt very uncertain about what this animal actually was.
We decided to go to our left as we knew a lake was not far away, and maybe we could get more light off the water to see. That’s when the animal started to follow us. When we reached the lake, (there was a faint light coming off the water), but not enough to see up in the forest. The animal had followed us, but had stopped just inside the darkness of the trees about 150 feet away, (at the top of a logging road), bright illuminated green eyes was all you could see.
We were young, confident and very sure of ourselves as young men in our early 20’s. So we were embarrassed that it was scaring us, and after discussing it, decided to charge it. We explained to each other, that when it runs from us, we will get a better understanding of what type of animal it is. So we grabbed some large branches as clubs, smashed them against a large boulder, (and took off running up the logging road at it), yelling like you would if herding cattle. As we ran, we knew it would run sooner or later, it wouldn’t want to risk confrontation with two angry humans. We ran right up into the darkness of the forest, (within 30-40 feet of the animal), and it didn’t move a muscle. It just stood there, staring at us, with those bright green eyes. We suddenly were petrified, we could feel it’s presence very close to us. At that point we knew, it was not a bear, mountain lion, elk, or any normal creature we were familiar with. It was something new. It was not afraid of us at all. We were so terrified, we felt if we turned our backs on it, it might attack us. So we dropped out clubs, held each other promising not to run, and slowly walked backwards.
As we walked along the beach next to the water, it followed us back to the truck, staying just in the edge of the darkness of the trees. When we finally reached the pickup, it had rained heavily, and the truck was stuck in the mud. As we rocked the truck back and forth, we thought the creature was going to look in the windows of the truck, or stand in front of it, so we could not look out the windows. We finally got the truck unstuck and headed down the road back home. Both of us were so terrified, we didn’t speak to anyone about it for several years, thinking no one would believe us.
Here’s where the story gets unbelievable. About 10 years later, when I felt comfortable talking about it, I told a friend of mine that had a ranch about 5 miles from the encounter location. As I told him this story, his eyes lit up, he seemed to believe every word I said!
When I was finished, he then explained the very same thing happened to his father, in the same location 40 years earlier! His father and his uncle were checking trap lines in the mountains, when they were young boys, and got caught in a storm and it was very dark. As they got off the trail, they came across a very large log laying on the ground and decided to walk down it to get through some heavy brush. As they walked down the log together, just as they were going to climb down, the log lifted them both up in the air! As they looked back, a very large blackhairy creature with very bright green eyes, had stepped up on the log behind them! They were so terrified, they dropped all of their traps, and ran several miles back to the ranch, soaking wet and scared to death.
Until that day, I couldn’t believe what happened to my friend and I that dark fall evening. But when I heard my ranch friend tell me about his father’s experience, I knew what happened to us was for real.

Local resident, wish to stay anonymous.
McCall Idaho

OTHER WITNESSES: Yes, my friend

OTHER STORIES: Yes, explained in story

TIME AND CONDITIONS: Evening

Follow-up investigation report by BFRO Investigator Kevin Llewellyn:

I talked to the witness by phone.

His report above is very detailed and he has no doubt what it was. He remembers the eyes well because, "the eyes looked into your soul, they were hypnotizing." It was so dark, but I asked if the eyes were very close together or spaced. He said they seemed about ten to twelve inches apart. He described them as cat like, tear drop shape. When the figure followed them, he could see the eyes go behind trees and they never bobbed up and down. The figure with the eyes always stayed in the darkest part of the forest.

It was too dark to see ears, shoulders or arms. He never heard any branches break nor smelled any foul odor. While following them, it was quiet when walking. It never made any grunts or vocalizations.

When they rushed up to it, the witness felt the presence of a massive animal. He thought it seemed curious about them but they were very scared.

I asked what did he and his friend think it was. He said after several minutes they realized it was a Bigfoot but did not want to admit it. The entire encounter lasted between thirty and sixty minutes.

About BFRO Investigator Kevin Llewellyn:

Kevin has camped, fished and hunted in Eastern Washington all his life. His interest in Sasquatch began when he was 10 years old and saw Roger Patterson present "the" film. He lives in Eastern Washington.

Recently retired, he was a veterinarian since 1984, after graduating from Washington State University.

He attended Washington BFRO expeditions in 2013, 2014, 2016, 2017 and 2019. Oregon in 2015 and 2018, Montana in 2017 and 2018. He was co-leader of N.E. Washington 2019, Washington 2020, 2021 #1 & #2, and Montana 2020, 2021expeditions.