Sasquatch Chronicles Blog

A listener writes: Late Winter/Early Spring 1981 Age 11. Harding Lake, Alaska

While living Federal Way, Washington, my parents took myself and my eight-year-old brother on a trip to Fairbanks, Alaska. My father had to travel there for business, and since my parents and four older siblings had lived there prior to me and my brother being born, my dad took my mom and me and my younger brother to make it a fun little trip. One day during the trip we traveled to visit some friends of my parent’s at their cabin on Harding Lake. (I’m about 95% sure that is the name of the lake we visited, but since both my parents have passed on, I cannot confirm with them. Harding lake is a little ways outside of Fairbanks. Shortly after we got there, my nine-year-old brother and I were pretty bored sitting around the cabin while my parents talked with their friends, so we went outside to explore around. The lake was still frozen and while exploring we saw a hole in the ice just offshore left by some ice fishermen. We decided we wanted to try some ice fishing on the frozen lake as we had never done that. I don’t recall the exact time of day, but it seemed that it was later in the afternoon as the sun was on its way down, but since the sun sets earlier in Alaska, I really can’t be sure of the time. While we were out there we found a tangled bundle of fishing line with a hook attached near the bank of the lake. We ran back in the cabin and asked for a piece of bread and then untangled the string and tied it to the end of a stick and walked out about 20 feet on the ice to the hole. I remember, as we were sitting on the ice, that I had a strange feeling that we were being watched. But I wasn’t scared as it was still daylight and I wasn’t on the ice alone, yet. After about 15-20 minutes with no luck, my brother decided he was too cold so he left to go back inside. I didn’t want to be a quitter so I was determined to stay until I caught a fish.

Near where I was fishing, the shoreline dipped inward a bit forming a small sort of bay, and across the water to the other side of the small bay was a bunch of bushes and foliage and then trees. I’ve looked at current maps and can’t really locate the exact place I was, so I don’t know if the terrain or has changed in the past 35 years, or if my memory is a little fuzzy on that part. but as I sat facing the center of the lake with the cabin behind me, I remember that there were bushes about 2 o’clock from where I was fishing.

As I was fishing, I thought I caught the glimpse of movement out of the corner of my eye across the little bay. I don’t know exactly how far away it was, but if I were to guess, I’d say maybe 100 yards give or take. As I peered into the foliage, I thought I could make out a face looking back at me over the top of the shrubs. I can’t recall with any certainty, but if I had to guess, I’d say the shrubbery was about six feet tall, and the head was a good foot above that, but I don’t know if it was crouching behind the bushes or not.

At the time, my very first thought was that it was an old hairy Alaskan prospector or hermit that was looking at me. It certainly had a human shaped face, no snout, or anything, but then I ruled out a human almost immediately as it was covered in dark gray fur all over the face, and was much larger than a human head. As I was well familiar with Sasquatch, I knew immediately what I was looking at and it terrified me, because it appeared to be watching me. We locked eyes for a moment, and I was pretty scared and didn’t move. Was I really seeing what I thought I saw? I recall the head weaving a bit left and right so I realized I wasn’t just seeing things. When it moved, I snapped out of my frozen state and leaving my makeshift fishing pole behind, immediately ran back to the cabin.”