YEAR: 1998

SEASON: Summer

MONTH: August

STATE: Washington

COUNTY: Skagit County

NEAREST TOWN: concrete

NEAREST ROAD: Baker lake road

OBSERVED: we were all sitting around the campfire near lake Grandy (near Concrete Washington) off the side of a logging road. We started hearing the same noises that have been recorded from previous encounters by other people. The noise came from three directions about fifty yards outside of our camp just inside the tree line. I then shot a round out of my shotgun into the air, whatever was making the noises was not in any way affected by the loud noise of the shot. We were all very scared by then so we packed up our things and sat in the truck listening and waiting until about 4:00 am the next morning, frequently turning on our lights to see if anything had come out of the tree line, nothing ever came out but the noises were still loud and clear when we decided to get the hell out of there. The next mourning when we came back all of the nice juicy food that we had left out unpackaged was untouched! any wild animal would have eaten it right up when we left at 4:00 that morning. We could not pick up any tracks because of the terrain we were in. no trace of what we had come in counter with.

ALSO NOTICED: none of our open food had been touched, it had been left out for at least six hours before we returned. the food was peanut butter and sardines.

OTHER WITNESSES: three, we were all sitting around the campfire.

TIME AND CONDITIONS: my son first started hearing it around 5:00 pm but did not think anything of it so he did not say anything. The conditions were hot and sunny. We all starting hearing the noise about 2-3 hours later. It was dark but warm and we had a bright camp fire.

ENVIRONMENT: Fairly dry for the pacific north west, dry, warm August night.

Follow-up investigation report:

Witness is retired from the military and was bear hunting with son and friend, who is also retired from the military.

As they were sitting in camp they had heard a howl off in the distance. "I don't have that great sense of hearing anymore, but I heard that howl off in the distance". It later approached their camping area and started screaming, "It took up a perimeter around us, we could hear them or at least one of them walking around the camp, snapping sticks as it walked".

Witness said that they could hear at least three of them, but trying to recollect that evening he said that they could hear two of them. "The noises that they made were awful sounds, I have heard many things, cats (cougar) scream, jet engines, different sounds from around the world while in the military, but these sounds made by whatever these were... well it was awful. Noises that we made with the pots and pans and even the two gunshots would have scared any animal off.... but not these things, they continued to circle our camp".

Witness said they had tried to scare them off with the banging of pots and pans and when that didn't work, witness went for his shotgun and fired two shots into the air. "The shots never bothered them, they continued to make those noises". The group then started to pack up camp, while subjects were still walking around them. "We decided that we were going to spend the night in the truck, whatever was out there still continued to stay around up until about.... it was 4:00 when we left".