YEAR: 2006

SEASON: Spring

MONTH: April

DATE: 16th

STATE: Washington

COUNTY: Klickitat County

LOCATION DETAILS: i was near Mt Adams so I'm thinking it was Adams County or Klickitat. We were in between Trout Lake and Glenwood.

NEAREST TOWN: Trout Lake and Glenwood

NEAREST ROAD: Sunnyside Rd.

OBSERVED: I took my friend out turkey hunting near Mt Adams. We went out the evening on the 15th to camp overnight before opening day. We arrived at our camp and got settled in. I got out my crow call and made a call, I had heard a turkey reply so I felt we had a good chance. We woke up about a half hour before sunrise and headed out. As we were walking to our hunting location we heard a tree limb snap and looked to our left, we observed a large dark in color animal walking away from us. I use the term walking because it did not sound like a deer or elk running from us. We wondered what it was and decided to continue on. We got to our area about thirty minutes later and set up our decoys and got in our ground blind. I started to make turkey calls and had heard a few reply. We sat there still calling when we heard this scream. It sounded like a police siren but only the first note. It lasted for maybe a second and sounded like it came from right behind us. I felt the hairs on the back of my neck stand up and looked to my right to notice a dark in color large animal moving away from us in a rather fast pace. It was big enough to move the small trees that were in its way. We immediately packed up our decoys and left the area. I was very confused by what had just happened and did not want to tell people about it. I felt that I would just get made fun of about it. About four months after it happened I talked to the Washington State fish and game about it and they told me that it was a cougar. I have hunted since i was in high school and am now 33. I have seen and heard plenty of animals that live in this state. I am 100 percent convinced that whatever made that sound and was observed by me and my hunting partner was not an elk, deer or bear and was to large to be a cougar.

ALSO NOTICED: We both feel that whatever we had heard on the way in to our location followed us at some distance and did not realize that we had stopped and sat next to the tree. It was almost like it was startled when it realized that we were right there in front of it.

OTHER WITNESSES: One witness was involved, he was my hunting partner and myself

OTHER STORIES: During the past year while talking with other hunters it has been mentioned to me about the screaming noise and different sounds that could not be identified that were heard in the same area that I hunt in.

TIME AND CONDITIONS: It happened early in the morning as the sun was rising and then again about an hour or so later. The weather was warm and it was in the spring time.

ENVIRONMENT: it was a in a pine forest and we were sitting next to a sharp left hand turn in a old logging road we were about five feet higher than the road and sitting about ten yards back off of it facing away from the road the scream came from the road. the road is not managed or used and hasn't been for years.

Follow-up investigation report by BFRO Investigator Ghee Bouche':

I talked with Brian on the phone concerning the incident and found his experience to be very compelling. He also recounted that the night before the hunting experience he was sleeping in his truck and woke up in the middle of the night feeling like someone was looking at him through his tinted windows on the truck's canopy. During the walk into the hunting location he and his partner could hear thumping or deep thudding sounds. When the two of them were in the blind he recalled that the environment went suddenly quiet to the point where his hunting partner dozed off. The silence was broken by the scream and the animal which Brian recalled moving through the 8' trees with a bipedal running sound. Based on his years of hunting experiences it did not sound like an Elk or Bear running. As the animal which ran from its position behind them screamed, the witness noticed black fur covering its back and body and heard the cracking of trees as it pushed them over in retreat.

About BFRO Investigator Ghee Bouche':

An avid back country hiker and outdoors man, Ghee Bouche' has experienced Sasquatch behavior and worked with expeditions in the northwest to collect data on this species for their future protection and increased cultural awareness. He is the author of "The Night Tribe" and co-lead in the 2013 BFRO expedition of the Olympic Peninsula in Washington state.