I had never really known much about Sasquatch growing up. I remember seeing the Patterson Gimlin film and hearing the term Bigfoot a few times but that was the extent of my knowledge. That would all change.
My father was in the Army and after moving all over the world, we ended up at Ft. Lewis Washington at the end of 1977, I was 15 at the time and I had always loved the woods and forest and I was in heaven there. My friends and I would go out and hike different areas, and explore where ever we could.
Looking back in retrospect, there were many incidents that at the time seemed inconsequential, things such as rock throwing, wood knocking, hearing strange vocalizations and one time seeing two dark figures seemingly walking across a meadow but the distance was fairly great so I thought nothing of it.
In the fall of 1978, just after my 16th birthday, me and a friend were out and decided to check out around Lewis Lake, the day was fairly uninteresting, a few critters but nothing spectacular. We were heading southwest on some trails that lead towards the river. The trail was maybe 9 to 10 feet wide, pretty wooded on the left and a sparsely wooded incline leading to a tree line on the right. We were joking and cutting up when I caught a scent of something God awful, it was a very musky stench of sulfur and wet dog mixed with the local land waste. We heard a loud snap as if a tree branch was being broken. Very soon after about 30 to 40 feet ahead and left, a massive Dark brown figure stepped out on to the trail. We both were frozen in our steps. With one step it was in the middle of the trail, and my mind could not make sense of what this was.
I can remember it as clear as the day it happened, this was a very large creature, 8 to 8 1/2 feet tall, its body was massive and must have weighed 600+ pounds. It had turned to look at us, but it turned from the waist not the neck. It was completely hair covered except for the face area from the brow area to below the lower lip. The facial area was a grayish color skin, or may have been very short hair. The body was long thick brown hair of different shades, and various lengths. The face looked somewhat human, with a bit of a broader nose, and a wider mouth, and thick brow ridge. It had large eyes but I could not see any distinct color other then black. The shoulders were very broad and the head seemed to sit on the shoulders, the arms were muscular and seemed a bit longer then ours, not quite to the knees but very close, It had very distinct and visible fingers. The legs were very thick and muscular. This thing just looked powerful and it was very intimidating.
It only looked at us for a few seconds, but it seemed much longer then that. It never showed any sign of aggression but rather let out what to me was a grunt, or breath of air, maybe it’s just in my mind, but it sounded like a sigh of disgust, as we were inconveniencing him. He then turned took one more step and had crossed the trail and walked up the hill on the right. We stood and watched him as he walked up reaching out on occasion grabbing trees on the way up, it never looked back once. Once it disappeared into the tree line, me and my friend looked at one another, and without saying a word we took off running towards home. We never discussed it with anyone else other then our parents. Only being 16, I didn’t want to be ridiculed by anyone, me and my buddy were just plain terrified about it, and he didn’t even want me to bring it up.
This is actually the one that most resembles what I seen, the color was different, but VERY close.
Jeffrey H
Wow, couple of brave kids at 16 or so. I’m surprised they watched him go up the hill versus just getting the heck out of there. Nice story either way.
Christopher c
Very nice story,a lot of action in the 70’s-80’s around and even on the Joint Base Ft. Lewis and I believe Will from SAS.CRON. was even stationed there,after seeking counseling for my encounters and having three different psycs. blow it off because of their stance on the matter ,my new psychiatrist is actually taking it serious now that I found out she is from Puyallup,she had no clue she used to live in a Sasquatch hotbed,but she is taking it seriously because she now remembers her dad recalling a second hand story told to him by a neighbor who lived next to her families vacation cabin in Concrete Wa.
Anthony M
Amazing!
Thanks For Sharing!
Donald B.
LOOKS JUST LIKE …GARY M. DON’T YOU THINK ?
John S
the word is THAN my friend
Sean C
Thanks for sharing! It’s funny, how many small details you can walk away from and dismiss, when you are younger in the woods. When you get older, and read about people’s encounters, you realize what you were most likely in the midst of. My cousin and I rode our dirt bikes all through the woods of SE Oklahoma, and I’m pretty sure we were being watched much of the time. We would get a little spooked once in awhile, and then just ride on and forget about it, because we were clueless of what was really out there. I’m sure they probably hated hearing my 2 stroke screaming around on the logging roads and trails, but we were respectful of the woods, and just out enjoying ourselves. I’m glad that we were never scared to death, with a full on encounter. I don’t know if I would’ve ever gotten past it enough, to enjoy the woods again. I now know that they were there.
Chris