YEAR: 2002

SEASON: Fall

MONTH: October

DATE: 17th

STATE: Washington

COUNTY: Chelan County

LOCATION DETAILS: North on Hwy 97 Alt to the Entiat turn off, NW on this road for about 30 miles, past the small gas station, post office, cafe and church with the sign of Ardenvoir on it. Just about half way up the 5900 road to Shady Pass is the turn off for the 5901 road. Silver creek intersects this road mid way to a junction with the 5902 road.

NEAREST TOWN: Ardenvoir

NEAREST ROAD: Non-maintained forest service road and then next nearest major road would be Entiat river Road.

OBSERVED: I am 47 yrs old and have been hunting since a small boy. I have heard deer, elk, bear, cougar and all of the different noises they make. What I experienced recently while hunting was something I have Never in all my life seen or heard before. It shook me up very bad. I was always very skeptical of bigfoot but after this experience, I am convinced.

On Oct. 17th 2002, I was hunting deer on Silver creek, approximately 32 miles up the Entiat River valley, at about 4500-4700 ft elevation.

My plan was to hunt up the creek on steep, heavy timbered ground up toward a knob called Big Hill. I planned to hunt slowly. Go as far as I could until noon and head back down to my truck which was parked on an old non maintained forest service road about 5 miles from the Shady Pass Road ( which is a steep dirt rd. It also goes up to big hill and then over to lake chelan....a 34 mile trip).

I left the truck and was in the timber before daylight (about 6:50 am). I was hunting uphill, going slow, and angling away from the creek. I was finding lots of deer sign and it looked like a promising day.

I went about 100 yards before seeing a small buck bedded and jumping some does up. I walked on for 45 or more minutes. The deer sign quit except for a couple old tracks.

I was standing quietly to plan my direction when I heard what sounded like logs or poles being thrown onto a pile of more poles. I heard this sound three different times in a row, just a few minutes apart. There were no hunters or other people in this remote area.

Walking further up the hill I saw a draw coming up. Looking around for my best entrance, I see a White Fir tree approx. 24 " on base with an oval piece of bark missing. I figured it must have been done by bear or buck deer. I walked down to it to discover only one gouge on the bark above scar. It obviously wasn't done by a bear or deer. It appeared to be pulled off gently and exact. The top was eye level to me, and the bottom was about 10"-12" above ground. there was only one small piece of bark on the ground about 4" wide and 12" long also shaped in a perfect oval. The sap on tree was untouched.

I turned and walked to the edge of the draw. Looking down only 12 feet or so at the bottom, was what appeared to be a large deer bed. When I got down to it, it was an area the size of three dinner tables. It was covered in fir and pine needles and obviously well packed.

Standing there I could hear water running. Looking down into a hole on the downhill edge of this, was a short under ground creek exposed. The hole was approx. 4 feet long, 12 in wide, and 20-24 inches deep, with a flow of water at the bottom. I glanced up the draw. It was steep and covered with nothing but fir needles and old rotten logs. The same below but not as steep.

The next thing I noticed really got my attention. Water had recently been splashed up and over one side of the hole onto the dry fir needles. Feeling uneasy, I walked up and out of the other side of the draw on a well worn, well packed path covered in fir and pine needles.

The area has a lot of little bushes which resemble a miniature huckleberry, the plant no taller than 6" high. These on the edges of the path were also smashed down flat. There was no sign of bear tracks in area.

At the upper crest of the path I studied a track, human like but with no signs of toes. It was about the length of my boot (I wear a size 12). Where the ball of the human foot is straight across, this seemed to bump up in the middle but no sign of toes. (Meaning that the whole size of this foot had to have been much larger than that of any humans). The ground was hard and had some needles on it.

Looking up ahead I saw Willow bushes in an opening in the timber. I was trying to decide whether to go up or below it when I noticed what seemed to be stacked dead logs inside of what appeared to be a circle of Willow bushes approx. 60 feet in diameter. Planning to walk closer to get a better look, I almost step on feces that I have never seen before. (I have been an avid hunter and hiker for many years and have NEVER seen the looks of this before). It was a weird textue and color and looked more human than bear or cougar. I decided to take a picture with my disposable camera I had in my backpack.

As I was taking my pack off, I glanced downhill and caught a glimpse of what looked to be some brown fur quickly ducking down behind a buckskin log. I didnt get a good look so I thought it could have just been a squirrel since the area was full of them, but it was too large, and also, the last thing you see of a squirrel is its tail and not a patch of fur. I began to get very uncomfortable.

I pulled out my camera from my pack and knelt down and took a picture of the feces. Wanting to be sure it worked, I decided I should take another one. I then got the idea that after I took the second picture, I would empty a ziploc bag I had in my pack containing my trail snacks and take a feces sample back with me to turn into someone for some further investigation on it.

I knelt even closer to get my second picture, started to wind the camera and all of a sudden from behind me I hear a sound I cant even really describe. You had to be there to hear it yourself to get any sense of just how this thing sounded.

It was a "whuuuuuuuuu" sound. A kind of a roar like, yell like sound. It was very low and lungy and louder in decibals than any human, even one shouting as loud as he could right in my ear. It had to have come from something with a very large set of lungs. It was a very threatening, warning type of sound accompanied by a large crash like that of a log being thrown through large bushes. Looking up and behind me, all I saw was two squirrels running panickedly down the hill through the draw and up a fir tree not more than 10 feet in front of me.

I decided I was OUT OF THERE, shoving my camera in my pack. I looked up to the squirrels sitting on the lower branches. They were looking in the direction the noise came from and making a lot of racket. I think I may have even said outloud "OK I'M LEAVING" as I got my pack onto my back. Not thrilled about having to go back in the direction of the noise, I unsnapped my 44 mag. handgun in my holster.

I was trying to leave lower toward the creek than I had come. As I passed by the draw I looked below to see the tree with the bark missing, so I headed even more down hill. I could faintly hear Silver creek below me maybe a 1/4 mile or so away.

Inititally trying to be quiet, I felt it best to make all the noise I could. So I stepped on every dead limb and branch I could. Going around a tree, I almost stepped on some more feces. It was the same color, gray and tan with some white specs throughout, but this was much larger and more of a constipated texture. It had kind of a pink or champagne tint to it. I thought about stopping to retrieve a sample but I wasnt about to stop and kneel down again.

For the first 200 yards or so, I could hear something purposefully making loud noise (Stuff crashing around and what sounded to be large things being tossed and thrown) it stayed just out of my sight below and behind me. Then as I neared the road, it all appeared to just stop and I felt I was left alone.

As I finished my desent out ,and for the rest of the day, all I could think about was that sound. How loud and breathy it sounded. A person standing right behind me couldnt be even half that loud. It sounded like the exact same sound my son and daughter's boyfriend had described to me last November while hunting In the late buck season. They had something answer the grunt tube call they were using not more than a mile from the same spot.

ALSO NOTICED: Son and daughter's boyfriend heard same type of noise while hunting the previous year not more than a mile from where I was. It answered their grunt call they were using. It unsettled them so bad they decided to leave the area and not continue with their calling.

OTHER WITNESSES: No

TIME AND CONDITIONS: Early morning (around 8 am) weather was clear and sun was just coming out.

ENVIRONMENT: Also described above

A & G References: Pg. 82, A4
T29N R18E Sec 36

Follow-up investigation report:

I contacted MS by phone stating that I wanted to go to this area and check it out. He tried to give me better directions. He also wanted to go along but couldn't get away right then.

I traveled to the area on 10-26-02 at 9:30AM. I arrived at the turn off to go up to Big Hill at 2:30PM (FR 5900). The Entiat river valley is very picturesque! I saw a large doe cross the road in front of me in broad daylight. The river is level with the ground with a lot of sandy banks.

I found the exact locations MS wrote about. The lower road is 5901, the upper is 5902. The roads are covered in 1/8" of very fine reddish brown dust. Anything walking on it left tracks. I saw at least 500 deer tracks there. The elevation of 5901 and Silver Creek is 3780' (N47deg 48.224 / W -120 deg 31.897). I walked around quite a bit but heard nor saw anything except for a rapid series of gun shots lower down and at least 2 miles distant.

I could not locate the tree with the missing patch of bark or the willows with stacked logs amongst them, but that doesn't mean anything. The area is very steep.

He stated that the scat samples he found were from 1.25" to 2.25" in diameter and had white marbled looking flecks through-out. There was nothing but fine grained material in them otherwise.

He also doesn't think he smelled or heard anything.

• Explanation of the report classification system
• Submit a report for the sightings database
• Please send any comments or inquiries to ContactUs@BFRO.net