Sasquatch Chronicles Blog

A listener writes “I am currently 31 and live in Cottage Grove Oregon however my encounter happened in the summer of 2005 or 2006 back when I was in middle school. Growing up in the Pacific Northwest I was always into supernatural/paranormal shows, I had heard of Sasquatch at a young age but did not know if I actually believed that it existed.

I had seen episodes of Monster Quest and seen the creature talked about on the shows but even at a young age I have always been someone who has to see it for themselves to truly believe it.

Back during the summer of 05/06 a friend of my mother was over visiting and had brought up in conversation that he had had an encounter at Loon Lake Oregon years ago. I sat and listened to his encounter and was enamored listening to the detail and way he spoke about it. His story in a short summed up version is that he was out hiking and saw a creature from across an open field area. He had a gun on him at the time but could or would not raise it to shoot because he saw what looked like a young Sasquatch around the neck or shoulders of the creature.

According to him, if it was just the adult he would have taken a shot but he didn’t want to leave the young one without a parent. After listening to the story I begged and pleaded for him to take me to the location so that we could search and see what we could find. Later that summer my wish was granted and he took myself, a friend that was the same age as me, and his son who was a few years younger out to Loon Lake for a day trip. This was when my encounter happened.

After arriving at the Loon Lake recreation area around 10:00 I would guess our group of Mike (the adult friend of my mother), myself, Ryan (my friend, and Shane (Mike’s son) got out of his car and started looking for trails that we could follow. We quickly located a trail that was already made and decided to start down it. We followed the trail for maybe 20-30 minutes and then decided that if we were actually going to see one of these creatures it wasn’t going to be on a trail that gets a lot of foot traffic so we decided to follow a deer or elk trail that we came across.

We kept following the trail until eventually it opened up into a huge clearing of tall grass that was all completely flattened down. Being excited kids we speculated that this area was where a group of Sasquatch must have bedded down to sleep. Looking back it was 100% where some kind of group of deer or elk had probably bedded down but again we were out looking for Sasquatch so that MUST have been what did it. After stopping to check out the bedded area we decided to move on and started following another deer/elk trail away from the location. We followed this new trail for a short time, maybe 15-20 minutes until it stopped and came out onto a dirt trail. We followed this dirt trail and eventually found a group of boulders that had some tree branches covering the top. It almost looked like a natural hut or cave but the top would have been open if not for the tree branches.

We decided that we had to check this out as it could be some kind of rest area for one of these creatures. We walked over to the site and could not find anything in particular except that there were marks on a lot of the trees around it all at about the same height.

I would guess now that the height was about 5 feet off the ground which we now assume to be again from deer or elk made with their antlers but like I mentioned earlier at the time in our minds these were definitely made by Sasquatch and we were on the right trail. After checking the site we started back on moving down the dirt path. Another 20 or so minutes went by and Mike was starting to fall behind us kids but since we were on a path and were in the general area of a state park we figured we would be fine to keep moving ahead as long as we stayed on the path. It was about this time that our path started to come up against a hill. to our right was a tree line that went up hill and to our left was a drop off that went down hill.

The path began to curve and we ran into a huge downed tree that was blocking the path. It was easy enough for us kids to climb underneath it but didn’t realize that Mike would have to either climb over it or find another way around. Being all gung ho after finding the hut site earlier we quickly climbed under the tree and kept walking down the path distancing ourselves from Mike even more than we already had. Maybe five minutes after passing the downed tree I happened to look over to my right up into the tree line and I froze.

I can’t tell you why I looked over at that specific time because there was no obvious trigger such as a noise or movement but what I saw had me absolutely paralyzed. I am roughly guesstimating but approximately 20-30 yards away from the trail up in the trees I saw a figure that was hiding itself halfway behind a tree. It literally had its left half of its body behind this tree and the other half sticking out and seemed to be right up against the tree. If it was for the size of the creature I probably would have just as soon assumed that it was a part of the tree but the thing that gave it away was seeing the shoulder be so far away from its head. It was also a slightly different color than the bark of the tree it was behind. The creature was a light brown-red or Auburn color and was covered in hair not fur. I would guesstimate the height to be 8 or 9 feet but it is hard to tell thinking back on the encounter because I was shorter back then and it was on an incline.

After staring at the creature for what seemed like a small eternity my friend Ryan stopped walking forward and turned back to me and asked why I had stopped. I couldn’t break eye contact with the creature but I slowly told him and Shane to look up in the direction I was looking at. They both turned and started looking when Ryan asked out loud what is that? I didn’t respond to the question because I was still so fixated on the creature. Another small eternity passed with the three of us looking up at this thing just watching us in a standstill when from back behind us on the path I heard Mike yelling for us. He had just passed the downed tree and was worried that we had gone too far ahead so he started running to catch up with us.

After hearing his calls and noticing them getting closer to us I was finally able to break my eyes from the creature and looked over towards where Mike was coming from. I started yelling for him to come to us and that there was a Sasquatch right over here. I then turned my head back towards the creature but saw nothing. I froze again but this time it was because I could comprehend how this thing could have moved without making a sound. I scanned the trees looking back and forth but could not catch sight of the creature again. I turned to Ryan and Shane and asked them “You saw that right!?” They both excitedly said yes and we started running to Mike.

Mike asked us what we saw and where we saw it. We pointed out the area and each told him what we saw. Ryan and myself both described the same exact thing. A huge creature that had brown-red hair that had half his body sticking out from this tree. Shane said that the creature he saw was a much lighter brown color and had a relatively small frame. I always thought that Shane was lying and just wanted to have seen the creature too until recently when I had thought back to previous episodes of your show where these things never seem to be alone.

I always get goosebumps when thinking back on the encounter but now thinking that Shane might have seen a different creature all together has me even more on edge. After explaining everything to Mike then decided that it was time for us to get out of there and we started back tracking our way back to the initial recreation site. The whole way back the three of us kids had our eyes trained on the tree lines looking to see if we were being followed or could see another one. Thankfully we did not. I know this has been a lot to read so I will wrap it up here but if you have any questions feel free to write back. The experience left me with absolutely no doubts that Sasquatch exists and with even more of a curiosity for what these things are and how they live. Thanks for taking the time to read this and I hope you have a great day.”