YEAR: 2004

SEASON: Summer

MONTH: September

DATE: 1

STATE: Washington

COUNTY: Ferry County

LOCATION DETAILS: Right on Hwy 20 anout a mile west of a small rest stop.

NEAREST TOWN: Republic

NEAREST ROAD: US Hwy 20

OBSERVED: On Sep 1, 2004 at about 5:30pm I was traveling west on US Hwy 20 about four miles west of the Sherman Pass summit. As I came around a curve I saw a very large black or very dark brown creature crossing over the guard rail on the right side of the road. At first I thought it was a bear, but then it stood more upright and jerked it's head around to look at me as I approached. I'd guess I was about 75 yards away. The creature creature instantly turned and leaped rear feet first off the edge of the imbankment and was gone. Two days later a friend who had to go to Spokane stopped at the area and said he saw very large footprints and a place about 20 feet down the bank wher it had landed. I'm certain it wasn't a bear because the profile and the way it moved wasn't like any bear I've ever seen. When it stood almost fully erect, I guess he was a little better than four feet above the top of the guard rail.

OTHER WITNESSES: Just me, as I was returning from a medical appointment at the VA. No medications were involved.

TIME AND CONDITIONS: About 5:30 in the afternoon. The day was mostly clear, windy with some upper level dust haze.

ENVIRONMENT: Pine Forest with some areas recovering from the 1988 Thunder Mtn Fire.

Follow-up investigation report:

Witness was returning from hospital when he had seen subject turn and look at him, he was the only one in the vehicle. "I surprised it when I came around the corner, it never heard me approach it until I got with about 80 yards."

"I knew it wasn't a bear because the face was too flat, not long like a bear's nose and the way it stepped over that guardrail, bears don't just step over guardrails on their hind legs and then leaped out of sight." Witness states that facial features were too flat to be a bear. He also said that it was wide at the shoulders. He was doing about sixty miles per hour when he came upon the subject.

Witness is disabled and never got out of his truck to look for tracks. So when he returned home he called a friend who is a retired forester and gave him the instructions of where the sighting took place, he returned to the site a couple of days later.

What did he find?
He found some tracks near the road.

How big were they?
He measured them to be about a size seventeen

How far down the embankment did it jump?
He estimated about twenty feet

He didn't go over the side?
No, it was too steep, he could see where it landed from where he was standing on the road.

" I have driven the road for about ten years now and knew they were out there somewhere, but this is the first time I have seen anything like this".