"Hello, I and my 2 dogs had an encounter with what I believe to be a sasquatch in early fall of 2009. I was looking at real estate along highway #16 in northwestern BC and at the time I was somewhere between Vanderhoof and Fraser Lake. There was a For Sale sign that stood by a gravel road on the side of the highway, on a very isolated stretch where there were only forestry cutblocks and timber as far as the eye could see. My curiosity got the best of me so after driving by it numerous times over a period of a couple months, I decided to investigate. The gravel road took me through numerous harvested areas and at each fork there was another For Sale sign pointing the way. 20 minutes later I came to a large reddish house on a small lake, absolutely in the middle of nowhere. The windows were shuttered up and it was obvious the house was abandoned. It started to get dark so I turned around, still curious about who had built this house in the middle of nowhere and why it had been left to rot.
Halfway back to the highway I came to a large fork in the road (it was now completely dark) and I decided to park my truck and camp there for the night. I lit a huge fire and backed the truck up to it so that I could put the gate down and set up my bed in the back, settling in for the night (the truck had a cap on the back and I had been sleeping there for much of the summer while tree planting). I had leftover pizza from the night before that I warmed on the fire, throwing the burnt crusts back into the pile.
One of my dogs is a Karelian Bear Dog (Bert) and he has literally gotten between me and more than one bear during my ten years working in forestry. The other is a German Shepard mix (Ally) who isn't scared of much either. Before going to sleep I pulled up the bottom gate to keep the dogs with me but left the glass up to let the heat from the fire in.
After drifting off and letting the fire die down I was suddenly awakened by both of my dogs jumping over the gate and out of the truck, a drop that is at least 4.5 feet. As soon as they hit the ground I was up, knowing something was happening, and I dropped the gate about to follow them. Just as I did this I heard a loud growl/howl/scream from the other side of the fire, followed immediately by a yelp from Bert. Just as Bert yelped, Ally came flying back out of the darkness, jumping up, clearing the gate and ending up behind me, cowering in the corner. Within 2 seconds there was another vicious snarl from the darkness, followed by a louder yelp from Bert who then also came flying out of the darkness (almost as if he was thrown) and he also ended up behind me cowering in the corner. I quickly pulled up the gate and closed the glass, completely scared to death. Just as I got the gate closed I could see a form quickly move from one side of the fire to the other, disappearing into the darkness. It was huge and was not on four legs, but because the fire was between us and it, I couldn't really make it out clearly.
I have been within a couple metres of bears on my own, I've heard their warning growls and their 'I mean business' growls. This noise I heard was no bear and it was definitely not a cougar. It sounded animalistic, but with a human quality. Almost like a baby shrieking or a large woman screaming. Also, my dogs have put their lives on the line more than once for me, facing bears head-on and protecting me from anything we come across.
All of this happened over a period of maybe ten seconds, from the dogs jumping out, the snarls and yelps and then both of them ending up behind me, backed into the corner. I was frozen and sat there for 1.5 hours, just waiting for this thing to attack the truck. During this time the dogs stayed in the corners, moving from one side of the bed to the other, as if trying to get away from something outside. There was no connecting window between us and the cab of the truck, so I knew eventually I'd have to get out and make my way outside to the drivers seat, which I did after the dogs settled down and I knew the encounter was over.
After making my getaway I parked and waited for sun-up, returning to the site in the daylight. On the opposite side of the fire where the ground had softened up, was one large indentation in the dirt, maybe 16 inches long, which definitely could have been a footprint. And all of the pizza crusts were now gone.
What I know for certain about this encounter is that my dogs have never acted like that before, even when faced with bears, wolves or evidence of cougars. Also the behaviour of the animal does not match up with any large predators found in the area. And then there were the snarls this animal made. It was too high pitched and human-like to be a bear and it definitely wasn't a cat. Also, large cats do not stalk their prey in this manner.
Thanks for the opportunity to share my experience. If anyone would like to discuss it further I would love to learn more about other encounters in that area."
Our thanks to the witness for sharing this report with us. If you have experienced something similar or something that you feel may have been Sasquatch related please contact us. You can do so via admin@psican.org Your privacy will be protected, and confidentiality is assured.
