YEAR: 2002

SEASON: Summer

MONTH: August

DATE: first weekend

STATE: Washington

COUNTY: Pend Oreille County

LOCATION DETAILS: I am not sure as to how to get to the actual campground spot except by boat! We put in our kayaks at the Noisey Creek campground at Sullivan lake, and kayaked around the right side of the lake (unsure what direction that was)to the swimming hole and campground that was on the far end of the lake. The rope swing was only about a hundred yards from the beach on the right side(heading in)of the lake.

NEAREST TOWN: Ione

NEAREST ROAD: Sullivan Lake road (I think)

OBSERVED: My friends and family and I were Kayaking across Sullivan Lake in North Eastern Washington. We had spent the entire day slowly making our way around the side of the lake that is unpopulated (there is a highway on the opposite side of the lake). We "beached" at the far end of the lake where there was a small campground/swimming area, and it was there that me had lunch and let the teenagers swim and mess around. All of the adults felt very uneasy as if we were being watched and we made sure we kept the families close together. When we had to use the out houses we walked together and returned quickly to the beach. As we were beginning to leave the beach several of us noticed a rope swing on a very steep bank of the lake only about a hundred yards from the swimming area. I was among the last ones into a boat so by the time I came to the area of the rope swing, the others had already passed it and were quite a ways ahead of me (approx. 200 yards ahead). I was just daydreaming and enjoying the scenery, ( and to be honest with you glad to be away from the uneasiness that I had felt at the beach )when a movement caught my eye near the rope swing. AT first I couldn't focus on what it was and it took me a moment to realise what I was looking at. There next to the rope swing on a stump sat an old man.He was very tall and dressed in grey from head to foot.( My own father is 6'6" and I remember thinking to myself that this old man must have had him beat by at least 10 inches!) His legs were crossed and he had his hands clasped in front of his upper knee. I smiled and waved to him as I floated closer to him. He didn't move. He was tottaly still and watched me very intently. AS my boat passed in front of him (about 15 yards), I realised that this man wasn't wearing any clothes at all and he was covered completely with a very thick silver fur! Even his eyes were almost completely hidden from a thick (eyebrow?)of silver fur.
WE stared at each other the entire time I passed by him, myself with my jaw gaping (I'm sure), and he just quietly sitting very still. AS soon as I looked ahead to see where everyone else was at and then looked back toward the rope swing, he was gone and just the branches of the bush that was near it was moving. I have never seen anything like it before in my life. I thought I was honestly seeing things until my niece pulled me aside later that evening and asked me if I had seen the Sasquatch that was sitting by the rope swing. I honestly have never really given much thought to Bigfoot before that day. I had passed close enough to him to actually see the direction the fur was growing in! It was mostly all one direction (down)like a dog's hair, except around his eyes were it seemed to stick straight out.

ALSO NOTICED: Just that we all had felt uneasy at the campground. There were a few other people that were there when we first arrived, but they left quite a while before our group did. All of us felt like we were being watched while at the beach. Also that it surprised me the way he (?) was sitting and the color of his fur was not at all what I had expected. Even the shape of his head was more human than mongoloid or ape shaped. He had high cheekbones and a strong jaw, but he most definatly looked like an elderly man from a distance, not animal at all (except for thick silver fur). It also seprised me how quickly he was able to get out of the clearing and dissapear.As steep as the bank was, he must have been extremely agile and quick! I did hear some twigs snap very briefly,when I could no longer see him, but my eyes couldn't pick up on his color in the trees after he left the stump.

OTHER WITNESSES: The only other person that saw it was my niece. She was kayaking ahead of me in her own boat. NONE OF US WERE DRINKING, it was a family outting.

OTHER STORIES: This was the first time I had ever heard of anything about Sasquatch or Bigfoot being in this area. I always thought there were sightings on the coastal areas of Washington, but never anything this far inland.

TIME AND CONDITIONS: When I spotted him(?) it was around 4:30-5:00 pm. It was a very bright, sunny day. Very good kayaking weather (no wind!).

ENVIRONMENT: Sullivan lake is nestled in between dense forested mountains. It is where the big-horn sheep winter. The banks are very steep and it is very unpopulated. It is A very large lake that took us all day to kayak and we never saw any other boaters. The only human interaction with it seemed to be where the campground area is, and the highway on the opposite side. VERY BEAUTIFUL!