YEAR: 2018

SEASON: Spring

MONTH: May

DATE: 25

STATE: Washington

COUNTY: Clark County

LOCATION DETAILS: Just off Dole Valley Road, a bit east of Coldwater Creek Campground.

NEAREST TOWN: Yacolt

NEAREST ROAD: Dole Valley Rd

OBSERVED: My wife and I were driving late in the night trying to reach the Coldwater Creek Campground near Yacolt. By the time we got there the campground was full. We kept driving and stopped at the first logging road that had a suitably flat spot for camping (we sleep in the back of our SUV). It was a short dead end logging road in a recovering clear-cut. We set up camp and went to sleep.

Around 2:30 a.m. my wife awoke to our pet rabbit scrambling around in the driver's footwell. The rabbit had gotten down there and couldn't get back up. As my wife reached up there to rescue the bunny, she felt something firmly touch her leg. She described it as a firm press and then deliberate, downward motion. At first she was confused because we were inside the car, but then she remembered that we kept the sliding rear windows open slightly for ventilation. The spot where she was touched was pressed against that opening (we built a sleeping platform in our car that puts us near the level of the windows).

She heard nothing super obvious, but immediately afterward she thinks she heard a couple of extremely light footfalls.

We stayed mostly silent for about an hour, just listening for anything, but heard nothing else. I finally mustered the courage to peek out a window, but couldn't see anything.

The next morning we found very large, muddy fingerprints on our car, near where my wife was touched. We have pictures of these prints which we would be glad to submit. In the photos you can see where I tried to recreate the prints with my own fingers. I have medium sized hands and the prints are MUCH larger.

We looked around a bit taking note of things. On my wife's side of the car was only a fairly narrow strip of road, and after that was dry, crunchy grass and brush. Whatever touched her had to be able to walk along that narrow strip, otherwise we would have heard it in the dry brush. It also had to be tall enough to reach the window. We feel these factors probably rule out four-legged animals.

We considered the idea that a person could have been messing with us, but there are some issues with that which make us skeptical. First, we feel a person wouldn't have been so quiet. Second, we find it hard to believe someone trying to scare us would have simply touched her leg, left prints, and called it good. More than likely a person would have taken things farther than that. That would really be showing a lot of restraint for a prankster.  Last, the prints would have been a VERY large person. One who also though to get their hands muddy beforehand.

ALSO NOTICED: Just the fingerprints.

OTHER WITNESSES: My wife was the only one who experienced the touch, but we both saw the fingerprints.

OTHER STORIES: I only know of the other reports in the area from your site.

TIME AND CONDITIONS: About 2:30 a.m. Clear, but dark outside. I believe the moon was visible but I can't remember how much.

ENVIRONMENT: Clear cut bordered by evergreen forests; logging land. Somewhere nearby was moving water, but we couldn't see it.

Follow-up investigation report by BFRO Investigator Charles Lamica:

I interviewed the witnesses telephonically on 18 November 2018. I mostly spoke with C----, the wife of the gentleman who filed the report. One note of correction: This event took place near Cold Creek Campground, not Coldwater Creek Campground. I’ve synopsized C----‘s statements below…

“We own a 1995 Mitsubishi Montero SUV. We modified the back end of it by adding a sleeping platform where we sleep when we are camping. We have a pet rabbit that travels with us. When we got to Cold Creek Campground and found it was full we drove further up the road and pulled off into an old clear cut to spend the night. It was about 11:00 PM when we got there. Because the air temperature was mild we left the side windows open when we went to bed. The night was dark, with not much of a moon.

“Late in the night I was awakened by the sound of our rabbit scrambling around. It was up in the front seat area of the car. I had been sleeping on the platform in the back, on the driver’s side of the vehicle. I was on my side, with my body facing towards the outside of the car. As I was reaching forward to check on the rabbit I suddenly felt something grab my leg, near the knee. It felt like a hand. It pushed down firmly on my leg, then slid down my leg about an inch.

“I instinctively pulled away from the touch and completely froze! I was too scared to look out the window. I heard two soft footfalls on the driver side of the car, the side I was on. They sounded to be moving away from me.

“I never went back to sleep! About 5:30 AM I finally had to get out of the car because I needed to go to the bathroom. That’s when we found the palm print and fingerprints on the window of the car. My husband photographed them with his cell phone. The prints are much larger than a normal human’s prints.

“This is the second time we’ve had a nighttime visitor while camping. The first time, we were camping in the Mt. Baker area. It was earlier in the summer. At that time we heard some really deep hooting sounds. Almost like an owl, but so deep and resonate that we could feel the sounds in our chests. The sounds were close and made us so nervous that we decided to leave. We packed up and went home because of it. An interesting note is that both times we’ve had possible bigfoot activity we had our rabbit in the car with us.”

I found C----‘s story to be compelling and it was obvious that recalling the incident was an emotional situation for her. I could hear the fear in her voice while she was describing the event to me. I explained to C--- that sasquatches seem to have an overpowering curiosity about humans which causes some sasquatches to approach under the cover of darkness to further investigate “intruders.” I don’t know if the presence of the pet rabbit enhanced the curiosity of a sasquatch, but it’s an interesting thought that perhaps the rabbit was scrambling about because a giant ape was peering at it through the window?

About BFRO Investigator Charles Lamica:

Chuck Lamica's interest in sasquatch started at the age of 8, when his family discovered large footprints near their home in rural Oregon. He was an Alaska State Trooper for 22 years and later worked as a Forest Warden for the Washington Department of Natural Resources. He now lives in northeast Washington state.