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YEAR: 2010
SEASON: Summer
MONTH: September
DATE: Saturday
STATE: Washington
COUNTY: Mason County
LOCATION DETAILS: Lake Cushman ( Camp Cushman campgrounds, the upper campsites)
NEAREST TOWN: Hoodsport, WA
NEAREST ROAD: Highway 119 (N Lake Cushman Rd)
OBSERVED: Over the Labor Day weekend 2010 my girlfriend and Newfoundland dog were camping at Lake Cushman, WA at the upper Camp Cushman campsite. We had dinner, an evening walk and then to bed in our seperate tents. I was cuddled up with my dog when all of a sudden a very loud earie whooping call burst through the quiet night, awaking me and the dog. My dog growled and flipped himself over & broke the tent pole. He was very agitated, nervous and couldn't calm down. The whoop sounded longing, lonely or lost in tone. It was definatly a female tone, the whoops went "whooop whooop whoop, whoop whoooop.." then would stop for about 15-20min, then again "whooop whoooop...." on and on for about 2.5 - 3hrs. The noise came from up above the campsite away from the Lake. It sounded really close but could tell it was far away, perhaps about 1- 2 blocks away. It was difficult to tell due to the woods, lake and projection of the very loud voice. I thought it could be an owl but no owl sounds like that, then I thought maybe an Elk but once again I've never heard an elk like this before. I couldn't go to sleep that night due to my dog wouldn't calm down, he was on alert all night until it finally stopped. I was petrified and was up all night wondering if this creature making the noise was coming to visit us in our tents. When I woke up my friend had heard the same noise and wondered if it was an injured dog howling but then when I mentioned sasquatch whoops she had an Ah-hah moment and realized no dog could make this noise. Others campers gathered in the AM discussing the mysterious noise, some said it was a bard owl, spotted owl, a coyote, an elk, but I felt in my bones it was the same noise I had heard from a recording on BFRO site (1974 Ron Morehead Sierra Nevada whoops & knocks) Camp Cushman is most likely being closed due to some lawsuit w/the native americans over land use.
ALSO NOTICED: The day after the incident we walked a bunch of trails back behind the campsite, walking along the lake front. As we were walking away from the lake my dog stopped abruptly and sniffed the air like he smelled the best smell ever. THen immediately after he sniffed the air, my friend & I got hit in the nose w/the worst pungent smell. It was like a dead animal soaking in swamp water for months. As we walked it suddenly went away and appeared again about 20 ft up the trail.
OTHER WITNESSES: Besides myself and my friend whom was camping w/me. We were both sleeping when we awoke to the sounds.
OTHER STORIES: no
TIME AND CONDITIONS: Night time: 1-1:30 AM it was about 53-56 deg. F, Moon was a waning crescent moon. It was clear and we could see the stars.
ENVIRONMENT: Lake Cushman campgrounds are full of tall pine trees & evergreen trees) Our site was about 1/2 block to the lake front. There were many families camping and playing music that evening.
Follow-up investigation report by BFRO Investigator Scott Taylor:
This witness has been on an official public BFRO expedition to the Washington Cascades. I vaguely remember this witness, as there were a lot of people there. Because of this, and her interest in anything concerning saquatches, she has a level of knowledge that is more that the normal, non-believing person who has a surprise encounter or hears something they can’t identify.
About 12:35AM, she began to hear vocalizations that she could not attribute to any animal or bird known to her. These vocalizations repeated periodically until about 3:00AM. She described these sounds as very loud, and as long, lonely sounding “Whoops”. She said that normal forest noises don’t normally bother her dog, but this time the dog went on high alert, and was very agitated. At the first whoop, the dog was up and looking towards the direction that the sound came from. The dog did not go back to sleep that night. She said that she could not get back to sleep until after 3:00AM. She reported the feeling of being unable to move, even though she wanted to. She and her friend had radios, and wanted to talk, but were unable to. In the morning, the witness, her friend and other campers discussed what all of them had heard.
She described the vocalization as not being anything that she has heard before. She grew up in the Port Angeles, Washington area. She knows what barred owls, spotted owls, and elk sound like. This was nothing like those. She said the closest sounds to what she heard were the "Whoops and Knocks" sound clips on this site that she listened to from the Sierra Sounds.
Later that morning, they went for a walk along a trail. Suddenly, they ran into a wall of stink that she has heard described as what a sasquatch smells like. She said that it was so strong that they felt like they could almost taste it. This is exactly the smell that I experienced at my first encounter. The dog, she said, acted very weird. It put its nose straight up to take in the smell, and she got the feeling that it liked the smell. Even so, it was on-guard, and its hair was standing up on its back. She said that at this place, the brush was very thick, and they could not see the creature that was making the smell. As they walked along, the smell would come and go.
The witness told me that both she and her friend came to the same conclusion about what it was that made the sounds. Ruling out known animals, they could only conclude it was a sasquatch. Interestingly, this is very similar to my reaction at my first sasquatch encounter; the sound is so different from known animals and bird, and so loud that only a sasquatch could make them.
I believe that not only were the vocalizations from a sasquatch that night, but that the next day, the two women were approached and probably followed. This behavior would be consistent with other people accounts and is what happened to me in October 2005 when I had my first encounter. The area is known for regular sasquatch sightings and encounters.
About BFRO Investigator Scott Taylor:
Scott Taylor is a retired aerospace manager. He lives in Mason County, Washington. He had his first bigfoot encounter in October 2005 where he was stalked and later heard vocalizations.
Scott has attended official BFRO Expeditions in the Washington Cascades in 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2013. He also attended 2007 Central Oregon Cascades and 2007 Utah. He now organizes BFRO expeditions in Washington and has participated in bigfoot conferences over the past 17 years.
Scott will be leading a Washington BFRO expedition in 2025 (July 17-20) which is open to non-members. For more details and registration information for that trip click here.