YEAR: 2018

SEASON: Summer

MONTH: June

DATE: 06/19/2018

STATE: Montana

COUNTY: Missoula County

LOCATION DETAILS: 8.6 miles up Forest Service Rd. 2119 off of Gold Creek Rd.

NEAREST TOWN: Bonner

NEAREST ROAD: Hwy. 200

OBSERVED: My family and I have been camping out on the edge of the Lolo Nat. Forest (Rattlesnake Wilderness) for the past few weeks. During the past several nights we have been having encounters with some sort of animal which we first thought was a bear. However, durring the daylight hours we have been finding many young trees literally being broken which we have numerous pictures of. We are camping in an area which is 9 miles up a dirt road near the Sheep Mountain trailhead. Several of the broken trees that we have been finding are very close to our campsite while others are up and down the road. There has not been any strong winds in this area for well over a week but yet these trees are broken several feet up from the ground which as anyone well knows, is not normal. We keep hearing something large and heavy walking through the brush and rocks have been thrown at one of our tents. We are all very much in the belief that we are being visited by a sasquach.

OTHER WITNESSES: Total of 3 people in our group and we are all seeing and hearing the same things.

OTHER STORIES: We have not heard of any other incidents like this in this area.

TIME AND CONDITIONS: Just shortly after dark, around 10:30 - 11:00pm.

ENVIRONMENT: Heavy pine forest close to ridgetop.

Follow-up investigation report by BFRO Investigator Caitlin & Thomas Ertz:

On 3/31/2019, we spoke with the witness and his wife on the phone. They recounted that they were camping with their teenage son outside Bonner, MT. The husband and wife were in a large canvas tent and their son was in a smaller vinyl tent. Their camp was at a dead-end road with a large berm to keep people from driving down an old logging road. The witness mentioned that the grass and vegetation was so overgrown it was difficult to hike back there and that it was obviously not frequently used. They mentioned they leave their campsite up all summer long to use for recreational purposes. A month or so after they were using their camp, the husband had gone to use their camp latrine (A 5 gallon bucket with a trash bag inside). He did not feel watched, smell anything bad, or have any noises he noticed. He came back to camp and the wife went to use the camp latrine. When she opened the bucket, there were many large rocks inside. So many she was upset she could not use the camp latrine. She indicated the rocks to be softball size or bigger.

Another instance they mentioned on the phone was their teenage son was sleeping in his tent in the middle of the night and had something grab the sides of the tent and begin dragging it back towards the berm and old overgrown trail. He began hollering for his mom and she ran out of her tent. Neither the son or the mom were able to see what drug the tent. She indicated the poles to have left a skid mark of about a foot and a half. the son refuses to go back to that area.

The husband also mentioned that there was an older retired man who was camped the next ridge over from them. They ran into him after their experiences and were bringing it up in conversation. The old man said that he had experiences as well, and they swapped contact information. We asked for them to give us a warm hand-off to be in touch with this witness, however we have not received any contact information at this time (6/21/19).

We exchanged text messages and emails frequently after the initial phone contact there was too much snow to get into the location. The witness was very responsive and was closely monitoring that location for the snow to melt to be able to get back to camp.

On 4/13/19 Thomas did the following research on nearby wildfires:
2011 West Riverside Fire
https://www.makeitmissoula.com/2011/08/earth-wind-and-fire-bonner-fire/

Fire burned 3,797 acres in the Lolo National Forest and Rattlesnake National Rec Area

2003 Mineral Primm and Mineral Boles Fires

http://leg.mt.gov/content/committees/interim/2011-2012/EQC/minutes/September-15-2011/Exhibit03.pdf

Fires burned:
Mineral Boles 20,713 acres
Mineral Primm 24,205 acres

These fires burned within a few miles of the location. These fires have cleared numerous acres of woods and scrub brush leaving minimum cover but allowing great sight lines for research. I have investigated the burn area to the north back in 2015 with little to no evidence of what created the tracks from the report. Report number 48722 is roughly 2-5 miles north. With continued investigation into the area we hope to glean more information to back up both reports and add legitimacy to this area and future reports that are received from this area.The burn areas allow for greater grazing areas for deer and elk, and bigger areas for berries that bears will eat before winter on set.
With this report and information coming forward it has created a renewed interest into this area.

We scheduled a time and location to meet the husband and wife witnesses on 04/27/19. They agreed, however when we arrived they did not show up. We attempted to call, text and email and every attempt was blocked by the witnesses on their end. Not sure why the witnesses had been so forthcoming and then very quickly not. We had verified we would be meeting as recently as two days prior to the scheduled meet-up.

Photos of wildfire areas:






We did drive to the location from the directions given in the initial phone call and were able to locate the area rather easily. We plan to go to this location this summer and hopefully the witnesses will continue to use the camp location and we can continue to attempt to recreate what happened and get measurements of the area.

We are submitting the report as a Class B and will continue to investigate this area. If we are able to contact the witnesses again, we will update as appropriate.

About BFRO Investigator Caitlin & Thomas Ertz:

Thomas is an avid outdoorsman, including hunting and fishing along with hiking and is becoming increasingly familiar with nature. Growing up in Eastern Washington, his curiosity has only grown through his life regarding Bigfoot. Caitlin grew up in the Pacific Northwest and is an avid hiker, camper and nature photographer. Being in PACNW meant for her that the curiosity for Bigfoot has always been on her mind. Both began year-round research after Caitlin's brother brought them compelling evidence in 2012. Both Thomas and Caitlin have countless hours in the field, including attending WA-2 BFRO Expedition 2014.