Sasquatch Chronicles Blog

A listener writes “Well here goes… this is my experience with 2 animals that more than 20 years later I still cannot rationalize in my mind. I have kept it to myself all of these years.

This would have been Jan/Feb 1995 or 96 up in northern Manitoba near the town of Flin Flon. It was a blistering cold winter that year even for Manitoba… I remember looking through the kitchen window where I was staying and the wall thermometer outside was around -40 plus windchill.

I don’t hunt anymore but back in those days I was big into fishing/ hunting and travelled to many remote northern locations in Manitoba. I used to always say it was the experience of being in and around these untouched… unihibabited lakes and forests was the draw for me I never cared whether or not I came back with game or fish but always came home smiling from the adventure. As you can imagine I had run into my fair share of the usual suspects in my travels… black bear… moose… wolves… coyotes etc also a cougar once near Lynn Lake. And even a group of swift foxes on a couple of occasions that were thought to be wiped out of that area.

So its fair to say I know the forest fairly well and I know the animals or at least I thought I did. On this occasion I was spending several days up in Flin Flon with my girlfriend at her relatives place. Her uncle took us out ice fishing for lake trout on a near by lake a few kilometers from town. There were 2 groups of us fishing in and around ice shacks they already had set up there. A few hundred yards from the highway across the ice and not far from shore.

Fishing was slow so I decided to take a little tour of the area on my 3 wheeler. Off in the distance was a narrow little inlet that went inland from the lake about 150 yards and was about 25 yards across… with forest on either side. So I pulled up to the entrance of it turned off my machine and started off on foot towards the end of this little inlet/ channel. Often its these shallow inlets that provide amazing ice fishing for huge northern pike so I thought we may move here a little later if things didnt improve where we were.

I slowly made my way up the inlet when the silence and tranquility of my location was shattered! To my left on the side of this inlet back towards the lake and in the forest it suddenly sounded like large trees and I mean thick trees were being snapped and broken like popcycle sticks! It was a ways in from me but was so loud it sounded like it was 10 feet away. This went on for about 10 seconds. Something was thrashing around seemingly wanting to be heard. I stopped instantly and just listened and looked. A few seconds later I heard knocking on my right which was the mainland forest side on the other side of me in this inlet. Very loud knocks. Then the same tree snapping and thrashing that had just come from the other side of me. To this day I remember the next part like it was yesterday because to this day I still cannot explain why I felt and acted this way. As soon as all this tree breaking starting going on I had a powerful feeling of foreboding wash over me right to my gut. And also to this day I havent felt it twice. But for some reason… which I’m not even sure was a conscious one my curiosity drove me to keep walking inland up the inlet. The tree smashing started again on my left towards the lake but this time it was further down the inlet in the forest. I had a zillion things crossing my mind but I could not reconcile what these animals could be. Moose had stopped rutting a couple of months before and no other animals could have snapped so many large trees with such ease. And frankly I’m not sure even a moose could have accomplished what I heard that day. And the snow would have had to have been 2.5 – 3 feet deep back there. As I continued on listening to this it started up again on my right towards the forest. I wasnt thinking bigfoot back then so I didnt think to look for slumped over / crouched down dark masses against a tree etc. When your in these forested areas in winter the brown and black colors in the background seem to blend together with shadows etc. Against a white contrast of snow. So I could have been looking at them and not even known it. Because I could see large trees coming down back there on my right side but just could not see an animal. Whatever was breaking these trees and knocking back and forth on both sides would have had to be massive.

This was the strangest part for me really… as all this is going on I’m listening and looking on both sides but next thing I knew I was almost at the end of this 150 yard inlet and almost at the forest! I clearly remember just standing there… not moving and collecting my thoughts for who knows how long. This is where the foreboding feeling became even more intense. I honestly felt like I was being surrounded. These animals are still breaking down and smashing trees on both sides of me but now we are at the end of this inlet and my machine is 150 yards away through snow and ice. But that’s not even the most gut wrenching part for me… as I’m standing there thinking what a fool I was for going all the way in where this stuff going on about half way back to my machine trees started breaking again. That’s when it hit me… holy shit these things were luring me deep inside this inlet now cutoff from the main part of the lake where I couldnt been seen and are about to cut off my exit!! Being in my early 20s at the time and a virtual gym rat I was actually in excellent shape. I covered that distance in no time flat purely out of fear. Jumped on my machine and pinned it… I dont think I even looked back.

What’s bothered me all these years since is that I know roughly what size and how much power it would take to do what these animals did that day. So unless moose can knock on trees and make sounds like a baseball bat hammering a tree… and 2 bulls together out of rut for some reason then they weren’t moose. And they certainly were not any other known animal I’ve ever heard of.

So there it is… that is my story from Manitoba. I’ve carried this bag with me all these years… it’s time to put the bag down so to speak and share this. I kept it to myself not wanting people to think I’m nuts or some kind of coward for running away that day. Being a bodybuilder and night club bouncer in those days this kind of story could have hurt my tough guy reputation lol. But I’ve been in my fair share of hair raising hunting adventures especially with black bear involved multiple times and I never took a step back. On this day I couldnt get out of there fast enough. That’s all I was thinking.

As a result of this encounter with whatever they were I have studied bigfoot experiences from others for over a decade now. And although I can’t say that’s what I heard that day… to this day I cannot think of anything else it could have been. There have been reported bigfoot sightings from that region of Manitoba so it really makes me wonder if that is what it was just beyond those trees coming down that day.”