Sasquatch Chronicles Blog

Mar 8

Elk hunter has encounter with Sasquatch

I used to hunt Elk in an area of the Oregon Coast range known as God’s Valley. My best friends father introduced us to this area. It was a large farmstead in the middle of the Tillamook State Forest that had been abandoned to the state when the owner died in the 1940’s. All that was left were several large grass fields surrounded by dense forest. It was prime elk habitat as the elk would come down to the fields to graze at night. My friend and I noticed some strange things about the area while camping in the summer and hunting in the fall. There was an area about 1/2 mile from camp we referred to as the Dead Zone. It was a strange area that gave us bad vibes. The forest would be alive with game and game trails. Elk, pheasant, squirrel, coyote etc. Then almost like crossing a line painted on the ground there was an area about 1/4 mile long where nothing and I mean nothing, lived. No game trails, no squirrels barking, not even birds in the trees, no sounds, even the air was still. Then 1/4 mile later you would cross another invisible line and bam! The forest would be alive again. That was the Dead Zone.

September 30th 1994 I left work that Friday, packed then headed to God’s Valley for the Opening day of Coast Black tail Deer season. God’s Valley was not a real good area for deer but I was by myself and didn’t know any other a hunting areas very well. After driving for about 2.5 hours I left the blacktop and was on the logging roads. At the time God’s Valley was at the end of a dead end logging road 7 miles from the highway. During elk season there are dozens of camps and RV’s parked along the road and several down at God’s Valley. I was quite surprised that when I arrived to the valley at about midnight it was deserted and I did not see a single camp or RV the entire way in.

I pulled all the way into the large U shaped clearing. At the bottom of the U was a huge old growth Douglas Fir with a rock firepit close by. I parked about 30 feet from the tree and left my headlights shining on its base while I set up camp. I had Black Sabbath turned way up as I unpacked my truck. About 20 minutes later I was bent over setting up my dome tent when the hair on the back of my neck stood up. I turned my head and thought I heard a commotion coming from the woods. It was hard to hear over the music. I walked to the drivers door of my truck and turned the music down. I listened and heard nothing so I shrugged it off, turned my music up and went back to work.

A couple minutes later I distinctly heard a loud snap of a breaking branch to the left of my camp. I walked to my truck and turned my music off again. I listened intently for at least a minute then I heard a very light rustle of leaves and a twig snap. The sound came from the woods on the other side of a 50 foot long blackberry bush that ended just short of the big old growth tree. About a minute later I heard another soft footfall. Then another. At the time it reminded me of my own sounds when quietly stalking game through the forest. For some reason I thought it was another hunter or someone playing a joke. I called out “Hello, someone there?!” Silence, nothing. About another full minute later another couple of soft crunches. There is a game trail on the other side of the blackberry’s. Whatever is making the sound is on the trail and slowly coming closer to where the blackberries end at the base of the tree.

By this point Im getting nervous. Maybe it’s a drunk hunter playing games but Im by myself 7 miles into one of the thickest forests in the US. I was carrying a revolver in a shoulder holster. My rifle and speed loaders were cased and underneath a ton of shit behind the seat.

I drew my revolver and yelled “Hey quit fucking around, I got a gun and this shit ain’t funny!” No response, nothing. I figured I would either hear a man running away, busting brush of an animal running or something but there was only silence. About a minute later I can hear more creeping steps along the trail. It’s get closer to the gap between the blackberries and the tree. Perhaps 30 feet away now. My headlights are shining on the bottom of the tree but I still can’t see anything.

I made the loudest most guttural scream I could muster. I could hear it echo through the valley. More silence. A minute later more quiet stalking footsteps. Im 6’3, 260 lbs. It sounds like a man my size or better trying to be quiet. Two legs? I see a large shadow move into the gap and behind the tree. The tree is about 5 feet wide. I am now scared for my life. I fire a round high up into the tree. The gunshot echoed for a long time. I saw part of a tall shape and yellowish eyes peer at me from behind the tree. I screamed as loud as I could and fired two more shots into the tree. The shots echoed for along time then silence. I didn’t see it anymore. I stood there waiting. I had 2 or 3 shots left. I wasn’t sure. After about half a minute it just walked away into the woods. It was no longer trying to be quiet but it wasn’t in a hurry. It just walked away into the darkness. I listened for a couple minutes until I couldn’t hear it anymore. I picked up my entire set up dome tent, threw it in the back of my truck. I threw my pots, pans and cooler and everything else on top. I was out of there and back on the gravel road 90 seconds later.

I drove the 2 and ½ hours back to Portland shaking. I arrived at my friends house at about 3 in the morning. I woke him up and told him what happened. The next afternoon we packed several rifles and drove back. I had to show him and see if we could find anything. It looked much different in the daylight. We parked at the base of the tree and looked around. On the trail behind the tree we could clearly see it’s prints in the soft earth. It’s prints were almost half again as large as my size 13 boots. The footprints were so far apart that I had to stretch my legs as far as they would go to match the stride.

Since then I no longer go into the forest alone

18 Responses to “Elk hunter has encounter with Sasquatch”

  1. Kris W

    Awesome encounter you gotta be oblivious to these guys to go in alone……. I did it when I was 20….. Shanendoah national forest….. I walked offf the appalation trail and set up camp next to a stream…. Only flat ground I could find….. Got my tent up ats the sun fell…. All night long I heard the weirdest sounds outside my tent. I didn’t realize till years later what it was….. But I can’t even imagine going it alone again like when I was young dumb and full of fritters! It was October as well. Which seems to be a hot month in that area for sightings

  2. Kevin K

    I had a similar encounter during the late September 94, Northern lower Michigan, Alcona County, Hoist Lakes area, west side entrance. Attempting to walk out of the woods in near darkness (except faint moonlight). About 1/2 mile from Aspen Valley Rd, this extremely tall silhouette off on my left started to screech and snarl (gutteral growl). I pulled my revolver and yelled “Police” (I was a police officer at the time), and it ran away crashing through the trees after I fired into the air. It was on 2 legs and I ran like crazy out of there. I never reported it because I was a rookie and on my 1st year probation and didn’t want to lose my job or have people think I was crazy.

    My grandfather was also stalked out of the woods and swore it was a Bigfoot that did it. He was not a man given to silly pursuits. He was responsible for several top secret GM Buick projects during WW2….

    I’ve had 2 more encounters in my life. 1 in Camino, California, another in Darrington, Washington, all with witnesses.

    They are out there. My wife and I live in Alaska and are a team over-the-road team truckers who transit the Alaskan Highway down through Canada and into the Pacific Northwest. We have seen many strange things along the highway on dark isolated remote nights in the dead of winter.

  3. John s

    You are all so very lucky your country has, in my honest humble opinion THE most beautiful wilderness, especially the Pacific NorthWest, on the entire planet. I dream of looking for this elusive creature on an almost nightly basis. I hope you guys could run an expedition for members sometime in the future I would be very interested and it would be a “life experience” for me because the UK just doesn’t have the majestic beauty and I would love to say Ive searched for bigfoot

    • Kevin K

      I would consider it. Spoke with my wife and she would talk as well. That is if they were interested in having us on the show. She was with me the last two encounters. Our house was hit with HUGE rocks that were throw up hill from a gully during a very strange time. It was during the same time frame that the Cedar Mill,CA recording was made. It was within an 60 air miles of our house in the Sierra Nevada.

      I would consider doing a short show……if they were interested.

      Thanks for the interest!

      KK

  6. randolph w

    Great description. It’s amazing, even after discharging your weapon, and yelling, and it’s still like you have no leg up on whatever it was. Creepy. ..they know how to hold their ground.

  7. Neo

    The fact it walked away is interesting because it is not normal animal behavior. It’s as if it was well aware of what was happening. No matter how big you are, it’s not fun to be shot.

  8. Christopher c

    Sorry had to go through that my friend it will likely bother you to your grave ,but when things get rough just pinch yourself and say:I’m here! it wasn’t my time either when I had my two footed moonlight encounter with something weighing as much as a cow or horse but without a doubt on two legs in the Shasta Nat.Forest, and I guess they are picky when it comes to music selections ,or it makes them curious for some reason when me and some friends were playing a song called: “SEVERAL SPECIES OF SMALL FURRY ANIMALS GATHERED TOGETHER IN A CAVE GROOVING WITH A PICT” a PINK FLOYD SONG, caused a Sasquatch to full on charge at our group from what seemed a mile away and as this thing got closer its’ screams(KLAMATH SCREAMS) got louder and meaner sounding until it was like if we don’t sprint for our lives now we may not live to see the sunrise.sorry you had that happen to you- it’s good to be alive!

  10. Renee B

    This story is creepy. I always think of Missing 411 cases when I hear these stories. I think the only reason some people live to tell the tale is dumb luck. If one of these creatures was angry or hungry enough you would never know what happened to folks who crossed their paths. I don’t think the author of this article would agree but I think he was damn lucky. Never camp or hunt alone is my motto.

  11. William L

    Yeah, he was lucky Renee. But he also had the good sense and the freedom to have a firearm with which to protect himself. The warning shots surely increased his chances for survival. They may not let any fear show, but they do know what guns are and they are smart enough to know they don’t want to get shot if there is any way out of it.

  12. Lisa

    Hey Kevin K.
    I’ve been living in Darrington, Wa for the last 3 years, so I’m wondering if you wouldn’t mind sharing your experience??
    Thanks

    • Kevin K

      Sure! It was during the summer of 2011 (early July) when me, my wife, and son were camping in the Kamloops Trout campground. As you probably are aware the campground is situated in the SW corner of Darrington. One can see a very nice view of the mountain peaks and Kamloops is backed up to roadway that leads up the mountain south of town. We traveled up the roadway until one really couldn’t drive any further. It can be very desolate up there and only be 10 minutes out of town.

      One night we were sleeping and we were awaken (2am) by very loud scream coming from south of the campground. Next we heard loud tree crashing and bi-pedal heavy footsteps moving VERY rapidly from the south to the west of the campground. The dogs in the area were barking like crazy until whatever it was started making loud “whoops”. My wife was getting scared and when the woop calls started, ALL of the dogs immediately stopped barking and a few began whimpering. The area became dead quite. We heard some more heavy footsteps moving away to the west and that was it.

      In the morning we talked with fellow campers and they heard the same thing. We left the next day and went fishing in the Suiattle River. We stopped at the USFS Ranger station north of town and found some peculiar books about wildlife of the Casacades. They actually had some pages in a few books pertaining to Sasquatch/Bigfoot. We spoke with a few younger USFS workers who recalled hearing screams and whoops at night in the area while on work detail. They told of a former USFS Ranger who had seen a Sasquatch while up in the forest doing timber surveys.

      One last thing, we noticed some rather large trees that were snapped in a downward manner all pointed away from a dense forested area. These trees were too big for any man to do that and there were no marks on the trees suggesting tools had been used. These tree breaks were found in the area where I managed to recover a large barefoot print. I took a picture (scaled pic) and it measured 17 inches in length.

      That was our trip to Darrington, WA. I hope all is healing with the town of Darrington after the tragic mudslide. The people were friendly and really enjoyed the IGA and pawn/outfitting store across from each other. Maybe one day we will return.

      Best,

      Kevin K

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