Sasquatch Chronicles Blog

A listener writes “I live in Prince Rupert in the Northernmost part of British Columbia. We re the last stop on the highway 16 yellowhead, and aprx 4 hours from Alaska by boat.

Its a small rural town and we are host to the worlds largest super port. The next town over is called Terrace and its about 140km drive on the 16W. There are no towns in between, just a few fishing lodges strewn about. Along this drive is the Skeena river, its a tidal river that is both fresh and salt water as it ends up opening close to Prince Rupert to the ocean. That means that half the river is salt and tidal and about half way it mixes with the steady flow of the fresh water from a few sources and estuaries. There are 5 types of salmon who annually return and run there as well as many other varieties of fish including the oolican who run in mid February. You can often see moose, deer, black bear, grizzly, porcupine, marmot, lynx, so many eagles and ravens, porpoises, seals, sea lions and sometimes whales in parts of the river and alongside. About half way where the fresh and salt water meet its tidal. The river has many shallow and deep pools that create rapid and unpredictable water currents.

But when the tides go out this creates pockets where fish often get stuck in “pools” the first nations people of the area often do fish netting in such pools and its a hot spot for fisherman to catch a good salmon.

My inlaws live in Terrace and I often like to take the drive out after supper and spend the night as a getaway from my husband and kids(Im a super normal mum who loves her family but they also drive me nuts) , and I get my hair done or go shopping or to the fabric store the next day. I have driven this drive so many times even at night I know every bend and twist. I was approaching just past half way on the highway and the sun had not yet set but was so far down behind the mountains that it was quite dim but not yet dark enough for highbeams. We call this the last light.

The reflective light off the one mountain ridge opposite casts a slight glow that prolongs the light exposure. There was one truck ahead of me along a stretch of straight road called exchamsiks (there is a CN rail access road that one can drive up into the mountains along here) Along this stretch is the railway that is slightly raised above the pavement level running parallel. I have clipped a young black bear along here when I was in my early 20’s and moved from Vancouver and had no idea how to look for animal signs at night. I spotted eyeshine far up ahead and it was big. A huge head, I immediately slowed from 115km to about 65km. I aint hitting another bear in my husbands truck. As the truck ahead sped off I kept staring at the spot and I could see something moving down the rail track, I thought maybe a grizzly it was so big. As I passed the last spot I saw the “bear” I slowed even more to about 40km and kept staring out my rear mirror, I saw this “thing” belly crawl down the rail track to the pavement, lift slightly and crawl on all fours to the road, and I remember think that is no F’in bear what the heck.

At the road it lifted up from crouched to crawl on all fours across the road. If that was a bear, it was a polar bear aloooong way from home that hadn’t eaten in a year. From head to butt this thing took up ¾ of the road lane. It was massive. But it did not have the tell hump of a grizzly. It looked like as if a human was the size of a polar bear crawling across the road. It had a cross bent gait with its arms and legs, not a straight gait of a bear. I nearly came to a stop ahead and I turned all the way around to look out the back of the truck. This thing was black and hairy, but the fur was like a shadow within a shadow. I didn’t know what it was, but I could sure as heck tell you what it wasn’t. I got that icky feeling in my stomach like when you were a child and saw something that wasn’t quite right and I started to feel afraid so I turned to look in my mirror one last time at it and then I drove off.

It got to the other side of the road where trees cast a dark shadow and it disappeared. I didn’t quite know what to make of this and I didn’t say anything to my father in law. He used to be a Mountie on that highway many years before. He is not what you call a believer.”