YEAR: 1997

SEASON: Summer

PROVINCE: New Brunswick

COUNTRY: Canada

LOCATION DETAILS: [See description of location in the body of the report]

NEAREST TOWN: Kouchibouguac Village

NEAREST ROAD: Within two kilometers of parking lot near lower campgrounds.

OBSERVED: Hello,

My name is Steve and I would like to share my sighting with the group. Before I go any further I would like to say that this is a fantastic web site and if I would have seen it in 1997 I would have posted then. Having looked through the site I noticed other sighting in the New Brunswick area one around the same time as mine.

Durung the summer of 1998 (July or August?) I set out on a solo vacation from the Ottawa area to travel the eastern provinces. I first visited a friend in Red Banks N.B where I left my car and trailer. The next day I got on my motorcycle and headed to Kouchibouguac Provincial park on the recomendation of my friend.

The next morning I got up early and decided I would like to take avantage of what trails the park had to offer. I picked the bog. This was the largest bog I had even seen. It is something like 1.5km wide by .75km [across]. You walk along a short trail through the forest and then wow!, you are presented with this incredible bog.

I climbed this small viewing tower located at the start of the Bog and took in the spectular view. I remember saying to myself "Lets see what animals I can spot" and then seeing something and saying to myself "theres one".

I pride myself in having exceptional vision and I focused as best I could on this animal. It was directly in front of me at an estimated distance of 500'. It was a greyish brown colour from head to toe. It was walking away from me.

I never once thought is was a Man as it's colouring was too close to its surroundings and too uniform. The only problem I had was that it was walking upright. I watched it until it was out of my sight desperit to get an identifaction.

Once I couldnt see it anymore I decended the tower and walked along the boardwalk through the bog in the same direction as the creature. At the end of the boardwalk I thought about going into the bog to look for it and fear of the unknown caused me to turn back.

Before leaving the bog I went back up the tower and it was exactly where I saw it the first time except this time it walked right across my field of vision from right to left. It was close enough that I could see light between its legs as it walked and noticed its lower leg and arms seemed longer than a humans.

It appeared to be picking things up as it walked. It didnt need to bend over or stop as it picked up some kind of plants. I watched it for about 20 minutes and it seemed to me like I was looking at a shadow. I felt like it knew that I didnt have either my binocculars or camera to get a closer look at it. It was just out of my visual reach to make a definite identification.

During my vacation I walked alot of trails and on two ocassions I walked off the trail into the bush. I noticed a light from deep into the bush as if there was an opening and sure enough I found what appeared to be a natural road /trail about 20' wide and as far as I could see either way. Being in these openings felt strange so I would turn back and continue on the main trail.

At one opening I noticed an impression in the ground that appeared to be in the shape of a foot print. Athough it wasn't clear if it was a foot print it seemed odd because it was about 1" deep like an impression of a rock but there was no rock.

Well it feels good to add this to your web site. I have always thought that Sasquatch existed from a young boy in the growing up in the seventies but it was furthest from my mind when I woke up that morning.

OTHER WITNESSES: No other witnesses

OTHER STORIES: None to my knowledge

TIME AND CONDITIONS: Early in the morning around 6:30 -7:00 am

ENVIRONMENT: [see links below]

Follow-up investigation report by BFRO Investigator Matthew Moneymaker:

I spoke with Steve at length and found out additional information about the incident.

In his report he said at one point during the 20 minute observation that he felt as though he was "looking at a shadow." I was particularly interested to find out what he meant by that.

He said I shouldn't read anything into that comparison and explained that he was only referring to the *uniformity* of color. It did not look like a shadow, but the fact that its greyish-brown color was so uniform from head to toe, at least from a distance, reminded him of the uniformity of color in a man's shadow.

The incident occurred in Kouchibouguac National Park (pronounced "KOOSH-i-BOOJ-u-wack"), on the Northumberland Strait. This is a protected natural reserve where absolutely no hunting is allowed at any time of year, in a country where any guns are scarce due to strict gun laws.

Steve mentioned that it would have been obvious to the animal that a human was present and observing it, especially when he was up in the observation tower about 500 feet away.

When Steve first went up to the observation tower the animal walked out of view. Then, after Steve walked along the boardwalk at ground level for a while and returned to the tower, the animal had returned to the part of the bog where Steve first saw it. This is when the long observation occurred, as the animal calmly walked around picking things from the plants in the bog.

Steve says the animal knew he was there in the tower. The tower only has a guardrail high barrier around it. People are visible from the waist up. Steve was wearing a black motorcycle jacket and jeans. He was not camoflaged or concealed on the tower in any way.

The animal went about its business without paying Steve much attention. Steve's sense was that it left his view initially not because it was frightened of him, but rather because it didn't want to cause a fear reaction in him. When it saw that Steve wasn't going to react with fear, it wasn't bothered. This was just Steve's feeling at the time, which he still stands by, and is entirely possible.

Regarding the grazing acitivity: The animal didn't reach down to the ground but rather to the low (approx. 1.5 foot high) flowering plants in the bog. It didn't bend over but rather bent its knees slightly when reaching for whatever it was grabbing, which was unclear. Steve now believes it was most likely grabbing for the berries and flowers on the plants. There is some unusual natural vegetation in the bog as well, including Venus fly traps (insect eating plants).

Other information provided about the bog area allowed me to identify it as "Kelly's Bog."

Kelly's Bog is located on the following map below the word "Source" in "La Source." This map doesn't mention the name Kelly's Bog but it is described elsewhere on this Canadian web site.
Full map of Kouchibouguac National Park.

The following low-res map shows the central part of the park, where Steve had his sighting. You can see the words "the bog" below the caption for "La Source" in the center of this map. That's the location of Kelly's Bog.

Another map showing ecozones of the park reveals how large Kelly's Bog is.

This sighting is fairly important for various reasons:

1) It occurred in daylight, and the animal was feeding out in the open for an extended period, even after it knew it was being watched by a human.

2) It occurred in a remote Canadian national park (no hunting ever), but in an area developed for nature visitors. The park likely gets very few visitors each year. Steve was there at the height of summer, but his motorcycle was the only vehicle in the parking lot.

3) There's an observation tower that can be used for camera work for anyone who wants to return there to get photos/video.

4) Disclosing the specific location and encouraging public follow up doesn't create much risk for the animals because of the strict enforcement against hunting in this region. Merely entering the park with a long gun would lead someone straight into a Canadian prison.

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