Report # 77373(Class B) Submitted by witness on Sunday, June 16, 2024.IMPORTANT LOCATION: Two days hikers hear a series of menacing tree pushovers at Cub Lake - 5mi east of Lake Chelan(Show Printer-friendly Version)
In Google Maps look up Prince Creek Boat-in Campground on Lake Chelan. You will see a small dock for it on the shore of Lake Chelan. Cub Lake is a day hike from that dock -- 5.25 crow miles NE from the dock. There is a marked trail from there to Cub Lake. The tree pushover action started in the last third of a mile before Cub Lake. For reference, that creek drainage that drains out of Cub Lake is named "Middle Fork Prince Creek".
GPS for the section of wood where the trees were being pushed over:
48.197873,-120.419201
NEAREST TOWN: Lake Chelan
NEAREST ROAD: Prince Creeek Boat-in Campground
OBSERVED: Hiking with my roommate. Lake Chelan. Took ferry. Got off at flag stop. Friend wanted to hike to Cub Lake. Get away from the crowd. Sunny day. No wind. 85 degrees. July or August 1985 or 86. Great hike up to the lake.
As soon as we crested out of the forest and into the more level lake basin, we heard the first tree fall. Large tree. We could feel the ground thud from the fall. We walked further in. Around 2 minutes later, another tree fell. Thud. Ten minutes we walked in. Every two minutes another tree fell with the same thud. Five trees in all. My friend said he didn't feel safe. I agreed. We decided to turn around and go back down to Lake Chelan to camp for the evening.
As we walked out of the basin, ten minutes, 5 more trees fell with a thud.
We actually never saw the tree falls or saw anything out of the ordinary. Back in the thicker forest the tree falls ceased. My opinion is something didn't want us there and ran us off.
OTHER WITNESSES: Yes. My roommate.
OTHER STORIES: No.
TIME AND CONDITIONS: Afternoon. Forest hiking. Sunny. No wind.
ENVIRONMENT: Cub Lake. Lake Chelan. Flag stop. Lady of the Lake ferry.
Follow-up investigation report by BFRO Investigator Matthew Moneymaker:
I spoke with the witness. He is a very credible retired claims analyst for the medical industry. He is now over 60 but he was a very avid hiker back in the day. He hiked many parts of the Washington Cascades. Nowadays he lives with his wife of 36 years in Shoreline WA, not far north of Seattle.
This incident really happened by in summer of 1985. He and his hiking companion were spooked out of the Cub Lake area by a series of menacing tree pushovers. As usual, the trees being pushed over were out of visual range but they were being pushed over within 50-100 yards of the trail, far enough back into the trees to prevent the hikers from seeing the trees falling.
This is classic bigfoot menacing behavior, but this was an extreme for that behavior -- an extreme in terms of the number of trees. It is usually not more than three or so. And it is unusual for the tree push overs to keep happening even as the intruders have clearly reversed course and are heading back out. That means a bigfoot was there trying to make a very strong point about not coming up around that lake.
The specific place where this started happening -- the last third of a mile before Cub Lake -- suggests that the tree pusher was keeping watch over the trail approaching the lake, and was trying to deter intruders, and leave no doubt that intruders are not wanted up there.
Although this happened in 1985, there is still a decent chance for a remarkable territorial display like this in daylight. If a bigfoot back in 1985 felt this location was sensitive enough to sweep the human intruders out of there so boldly, then it may still be as senstive for any bigfoots that might come there nowadays at the same time of year.
The elevation of Cub Lake is 5,239 feet. Lake Chelan is 1,104 feet. If the distance is 5.25 crow miles, the winding trail route could be 8 miles each way. These hikers, in their 20's at the time, were much stronger hikers than most, by his estimation. For them it was only a four hour hike. It's a good trail the whole way, a trail good enough for horses, so they moved along it quickly. They were able to hike all the way up almost to Cub Lake and back to Lake Chelan on the same day. They never reached the shore of Cub Lake itself but knew the shore was off through the trees in the basin head. He said they were not far away from the lake when they turned back. They didn't hang around long before descending back down, while being tailed by the tree pusher until the trail started descending the drainage more sharply.
I asked him if they were talking to eachother as they hiked up. He said yes, they were chitchatting a bit as they hiked.
In this very quiet lake basin surronding by so much echoey granite, that chitchatting coming up the trail might have alerted whatever was hanging around Cub Lake.
This situation could easily be replicated to see if some kind of warning sound occurs when you approach Cub Lake from below at this same time of year: Late July - early August.
Would bigfoots still be likely to go up to Cub Lake?
Yes, they would still be likely to go to that area at the same time of year because it has not changed much. The deer population in the Cascades has not dropped dramatically since the 1980's like in California. Coincidentally, mountain lion hunting was not banned in Washington like it was for all of California beginning in 1990.
I recommend this location if you want to get fantastic, valuable footage of a bigfoot. In this area in summer you could get that footage with a cheap-ish daylight (non-thermal) drone. A drone that costs around $1,500 will have zoom ability like a telescope. The camera can zoom in from so far away that the Bigfoot would not even hear the buzzing sound.
That is the way to go: Try to film a bigfoot from such a distance that it cannot hear the drone ... And then you are also in compliance with the law in this jurisdiction (National Forest). You can film wildlife with a drone near Cub Lake, but you must not try to disturb wildlife with the drone. That's the law. Yes, some people will actually try to spook wildlife with their drones to make the wildlife react or move around more. Don't do that. Never do that. Preserve your ability to return and get more footage later. Be unseen and unheard.
Oddly enough, the public boat dock down at the bottom of the mountain is technically wilderness area, so you can’t fly a camera drone down there at all, for any purpiose.
You are no longer in wilderness area after you branch off Prince Creek and start heading up Middie Fork of Prince Creek. You can fly in that whole Middle Fork drainage, which means in theory you can launch to see what’s around Cub Lake before you reach Cub Lake. Same for that final third of a mile below Cub Lake where the trees were being pushed over.
There is reason to believe that very few people visit this particular Cub Lake (vs the larger “Cub Lake” northwest of Lake Chelan that can be accessed by road). If it was a popular destination for hikers then there would be at least one photo of Cub Lake (on Miiddle Fork of Prince Creek) on Google etc. There is not one anywhere online (correct me if I'm wrong about that). All the photos online show the other Cub Lake on the other side of Lake Chelan.
There should be a rule that you can’t have two separate lakes with the exact same name in the same county!
It costs $43 (each way) on weekdays for a ferry boat ride to the dock from the town of Chelan. You will want to set up your camp at Lake Chelan so you have a place to return to at the end of the day, after hiking back down from Cub Lake. Next morning you can get picked up by the ferry to return to your car in Chelan. Hence, you coud go up there early on a Saturday (more people on the larger boat, but the ticket price is only $25 on Fridays and Saturdays) and be home for dinner on Sunday.
This hiker-drone mission is short enough and cheap enough to be an Eagle Scout Project, and challenging enough to merit a Merit Badge for Drone Use (if there is such a thing ... if not ... time to create one!).
You can click on all of these aerial images below to see larger versions.
About BFRO Investigator Matthew Moneymaker:
Matthew Moneymaker is originally from the Los Feliz District of Los Angeles, California.
- Bachelor of Arts in English Literature from the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA).
- Juris Doctorate (Law degree) from University of Akron School of Law
- Founder of the Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization,1995.
- Writer and co-producer of the Discovery Channel documentary "Sasquatch: Legend Meets Science", 2001.
- Co-producer of the TV Series "Mysterious Encounters" for the Outdoor Life Network (OLN Channel), 2002.
- Producer of the "2003 International Bigfoot Symposium" (Willow Creek Symposium) DVD set, 2004.
- Co-host of "Finding Bigfoot" on Animal Planet Channel, 2010 - 2017.
- Current Director of the BFRO
- Available for private bigfoot expeditions and conferences. To inquire please email ContactUS@BFRO.net
