YEAR: 1982

SEASON: Fall

MONTH: October

STATE: Washington

COUNTY: Klickitat County

NEAREST TOWN: White Salmon

NEAREST ROAD: State Route 141

OBSERVED: Hi, i recently heard a show called coast to coast am during my graveyard shift and decicded maybe its time to tell someone about my sighting years ago while i was hunting, I grew up in Skamania county washington, thats in the lower cenrtal part of the state, I spent my youth hiking and exploring the woods with my father, i had heard of bigfoot sightings growing up and remember a story in the skamania county pionner news paper about a deputy shiriff seeing one and them getting a cast of its foot{might want to look that story up) anyway i didnt believe at all in them cause i had covered alot of dense forest land and never saw anything or heard anything, my father told me he found a footprint when he was in his twentys hunting, it was in a patch of snow he said it was kinda old but he said it wasnt anything like hed ever seen, it was about 18 inches long by maybe 7 to 8 inches wide with toes and a deep impression i still didnt beleive in them, And like most people some of the crazy stories about ufos and bigfoot in them and and some of the charactors that tell the stories make it easy to make fun of it. So ive never told this story to anyone except one oldtimer who was a trapper who seen them several times. So heres my story,It was hunting season in the fall of 1982 i was around 21 years old and hunting a area in of eastern skamania county called the nester peak area it has an old fire lookout on top of the highest peak which is no longer in use, its pretty rugged country even though its not all that far away from some small towns. I had scouted the area several weeks prior to hunting season and saw alot of sign and tree rubs and about 3 days before opening morning i saw a beautiful 4 point buck checking its rub. So openin morning i got in thier about hour before light and waited about half hour after light a heard a loud snap and some loud rustleing in the brush but never saw anything. the area i was setting at was at the top of a revene or samll draw with road and mountain behind me and the other side of the revenes sidehill in front of me with a deep rugged canyon behind that. after a while i desided to hike over the the other side and see if thier was any fresh sign as i got toward the top of the other side i heard alot of niose and something going over the hill toward the canyon, i approached slow but never saw anything but thier was this god awful smell in the air ,its hard to explain but it smelled like a wet old musty dog that had rolled in some cow manure but really strong and stinky it was not plesent to say the least i thought maybe it was a bear cause ive smelled bear before but it was just different,the next morning I went to the same place and waited, i heard noise down the revine aways , a few minutes later i saw something walking up the otherside of the hill, thought it was a bear but looked through my scope and was looking at a gorrila type animal, it didnt really look like a gorrila but thats all i could think of it didnt seem real big , i was probably 80 to 100 yards away ,its head was wide and tall its arms were big and they didnt go past its knees ,about like a mans , thick hair on back, top of head and legs thinner on chest and face i moved, kneeled down behind stump and pickup my binocs, it heard me and the noise it made was unreal. like a cougars scream but just different and it dropped to the ground like it was hiding. i heard more noise and from the right came another one which was alot bigger, it leaned down by the other one and it stood up and looked right at me.it was much bigger probably 3 ft taller than the other one , it had alot of hair on its shoulders, hanging down and thick, its face was not that covered and through the binocs i sould see its eyes which were big dark , kinda human like though and a human type nose with large nostrials a mouth that was straight across and i saw its teeth when it opened it mouth they were big and flat not pointed.I could hear it breathing from where i was at. it was loud and deep,it was lighter and if i had to sat what color id say it had dark brown in places and reddish in places it had huge hairy legs i couldnt see its feet much the littler one stood up and they walked slowly up the hill stopping every 50 ft and looking at me. id say the big one was maybe 7 or 8 ft tall not any taller than 8 and maybe 400 to 500 pounds, not like the storys id heard of 13 ft tall and 1000 pounds they got to to top of the hill and another one came up from the right it was a little shorter than the big one and kinda hard to see, it was probably thier in view i just didnt see it earlier as i was looking at the others they walked out of sight over the hill into the canyon i just sat thier and was questioning myself what i had just saw, i was scared but just totally amazed , ileft the area and went home , i wished i had a camera so bad but ill always have the vision in my head. i went back thier about three days later and walked over thier where that littler on kneeled down. thier was some hair on a bush about 6 inches long not much an thier was a few footprints around i have a size 11 shoe and i put my foot in the biggest one i could find and it was probably 3 inches wider and 5 inches longer that my boot so like maybe 17 inches long and 7 inches wide, thier where some huge 3 foot rocks rolled over and you could see they dug under them, or something had and a couple old rotten logs moved and broke up. but really not alot of tracks even though i know thier were 3 animals thier and no sign where they went over the bank into the canyon. anyway thats it and i doubt ill ever tell it again, just wanted to let you know thier are real 'SANE' People that have seen. They just dont talk, THANKS RM

OTHER STORIES: NO

TIME AND CONDITIONS: daybreak. cloudy no rain or anything

ENVIRONMENT: TIMBER , FIR WITH OAK PATCHES AND DENSE BRUSH STEEP CAYNONS NEARBY

Follow-up investigation report:

I spoke with R.M. for an extended period over the phone, at his expense. He is a down-to-earth individual, who is very familiar with the Eastern Skamania County area. He has had extensive wilderness experience, and is quite knowledgable of the common wildlife present in this area. I am also very familiar with the area where this encounter took place, having spent many years hunting and recreating on and near Nestor Peak, and I still reside within a few miles of the location.

Several items in this reported encounter, which occured right at dawn, stand out as signifigant in my mind. First of all, the actions of the smaller animal (juvenile?), as it let out either a surprise or warning scream upon sighting the witness (contrary to the written report above, the witness believed that he was only about 60 yards from the animal, as opposed to 80-100 yards). R.M. described the scream as lasting about 2 seconds and sounding very similiar to a cougar scream, but with some tonal variations. At the same time as it screamed, it dropped down into a crouch, with it's hands touching the ground as well. It stayed in that position, partially concealed behind some brush, while it stared directly at the witness. R.M. related to me that he sat their looking at this animal through his binoculars, thinking to himself that he had to be looking at a bear, but knowing that he was not.

The next significant observation is the arrival of the larger (adult?) animal in response to the scream of the smaller individual. The larger animal did not appear for several seconds after the scream. R.M. noted that he did not hear the larger animal approaching, and only spotted it after having lowered his binoculars, which were focused on the smaller one.

Upon reaching the smaller individual, the larger one bent over and reached it's arm out to touch it. R.M. said that he did not hear any vocalizations or grunts between the animals that would indicate any form of communication, but the larger animal immediately stood up straight and looked directly at the witness. R.M. had raised his binoculars again and was viewing both animals through them. He stated that he was shaking fairly uncontrollably by this point.

R.M. offered some detailed descriptions of the 2 animals, mostly of the larger one, which he continued to view through the binoculars for several more seconds. He described the hair on the head as being short, thick and black, much more like fur than hair. The forehead was flat and sloping, ending in a very protruding brow. The eyes were large and black, with a large, wide nose (but not disproportionate to the face), and a very wide mouth. The witness mentioned that the width of the mouth really stuck out, as it did seem disproportionately large compared to the face. He also noted that the color of the face appeared to be a grayish-white.

The hair on the shoulders, back and chest appeared to be much longer, around 4 to 5 inches. The hair on the back, shoulders and arms was black, matching the color of the head. However, the chest area was more of a reddish-brown in color. R.M. also mentioned that the body width across the shoulders appeared to be close to 4 feet, although he admitted that this was an estimate, as he did not have a good reference for measuring width.

During the several seconds that the witness and animals stared at each other, the large animal could be seen and heard emitting four or five very heavy breaths. R.M. noted that the mouth was open wide, and he could both hear the exhalation, and see the steam of the breath, as it was a cold morning. R.M. thought that the animal could have been trying to catch his scent on the air, due to the intensity of breaths.

The larger animal then coaxed the smaller one into moving up the hill. As they moved away, the larger animal kept looking back, keeping an eye on the witness. As R.M. mentions in his report, upon reaching the ridge at the top of the ravine, the two were joined by a third animal, not quite as big as the larger animal, and they disappeared over the hilltop.

The witness sat in disbelief for what he said could have been anywhere from 10 seconds to 2 minutes, before he jumped up and hurried back to his truck, which was parked over 1/2 mile away. Although he was carrying a high-powered hunting rifle, the thought of using it to shoot one of the animals had never entered his mind. However, now that he was half walking/half running down the road back to his vehicle, he had his rifle at the ready, safety off, anticipating one of the animals chasing after him. He said that during the encounter, the animals never exhibited any form of hostile behavior, but he was not taking any chances. He had never seen anything like that before, and was taken aback by the sheer size and musculature of the animals. He opted to quit hunting for the day (which had just started), and headed straight home.