Jun 1

Screaming was a combination of man and animal

Cindy Sin Fallon writes “I lived in Alaska for about 8 years. Most of those years, I was a tour guide/commercial driver for the major cruise ship companies. I was one of the few year-round residents doing so, as most of the guides only lived there for the summers. Not me. I knew winters, too. I knew locals. I knew the secrets that were told between locals. I was a guest in the Native village. I knew the things our tourists & seasonal residents didn’t.

When I first moved to Ketchikan on “Revilla” (Revillagigedo) Island, I had already been listening to the sounds of nature from all over the world for years prior to my move. I love wildlife, & it was my lifelong dream to live in the land that I love with the animals I love. I spent the first 5 of those years in Ketchikan & the surrounding Tongass National Forest. The thick, dense rainforest was brimming with wildlife. Bears, wolves, eagles, raven, coastal whales…I knew them all. I’ve even walked with wild wolves & stood with one outside my home watching the Northern Lights. I was excellent as spotting wildlife & they seemed to be attracted to me. Even my tourists remarked on this. I would even take locals out who’ve never had any luck as seeing bears to places where I knew bears would be. I even knew how to follow the eagles to dead bears within the rainforest. I was good at finding wolf tracks, as well. I even knew a local man who walked barefoot in the snow, & thought to myself how many people have found his tracks thinking he was Sasquatch.

My first camping adventure was with a local man at the Ward Lake camp grounds, about 8 miles outside of town. At first, I was disappointed we weren’t wild camping, but when the ranger approached us & warned us that a bear had been entering the campsites, I thought it might be wild enough. We set up camp & my friend’s teenage son then crashed our site with about a dozen of his teenage friends. It was rowdy & fun, & we were all having a good, loud time.

Night had fallen when, beyond the range of the dirt road, deep into an inaccessible parts of the rainforest, we heard a loud, screaming howl. Everyone froze, even the macho teenage boys. It wasn’t a wolf, bear, bob cat, cougar, or any other animal that might even remotely have a chance of being found on the island. It wasn’t a sound ever heard in any of my collection of wildlife sounds. It wasn’t anything we knew. In fact, it wasn’t even purely an animal, per se. There was a screaming quality to the howl. It was like a combination of man & animal, & louder than either. All of the rowdiness of the teenagers had ceased as they froze in fear. The biggest boy then said, “That’s it! We’re outta here!” All of the teenagers fled in their cars & trucks back to town. I looked at my friend & smiled, “We’re staying.” The vocalization seemed to be telling us, “I’m here,” but it was far enough away that I didn’t think it was threatening us. We all understood what it was, but we left it unspoken.

My friend never would admit he’s seen a Sasquatch. What he would say is that, while visiting neighboring Prince of Wales Island, he’d seen something that was covered in reddish-brown hair, standing on two feet, in the daylight. He refused to give “it” a name & said it was 4 feet tall. I fully trusted he was speaking the truth, because who would make up a Sasquatch story about such a small animal? I never even thought of their young before, but it makes sense. He did admit that people have seen Sasquatch all over our Revilla Island. I always thought Bigfoot was something reported in Washington State. I never thought it was something that was known to live in Alaska, as well. I never thought Bigfoot would become part of MY wildlife.

Years later, I was wild camping with a different friend. We loved wild camping. The original place I had planned on camping on Brown Mountain that night was inaccessible, due to a landslide. I was a commercial driver in my SUV, so I decided we would press on past the road closure signs & off road it. I was fearless. Nope. We eventually encountered boulders bigger than my truck, so we turned around. We backtracked a bit until we reached the fork in the road that headed up to Lake Harriet Hunt, about 18 miles from town.

Lake Harriet Hunt wasn’t my ideal place to wild camp, because of my many experiences with bears there prior. The lake was surrounded mostly by muskeg, which looks like land, but swallows your boots like quicksand (I learned the hard way). Having been cornered with my back to the lake, with muskeg on either side, & the only path back to my truck occupied by a bear cub calling for its mama bear, the only thing that saved me that time was my ability to remotely set off my car alarm. The sight of the flashing lights & loudness of the honking horn scared the bears away. Good trick to know, as I would have to use it again while wild camping.

The night we were wild camping on Lake Harriet Hunt, we scoped out the entire dirt road leading to the lake. We pulled off into every pull out, looking for the best place to camp. We covered every part of the area accessible before we finally ended up at the end of the road. Again, with the swampy muskeg every where around the lake, we needed a place with solid land with which to camp on. I was back in the very place where I’d had so many bear encounters. Thankfully, my experience with, & knowledge of, wildlife always kept me safe. It was a good enough place to camp. We had the lake in front of us, muskeg on both sides of us, except for the solid land that made up the dirt road, which we could see & hear any vehicle approaching miles before it would reached us. As two women alone in the wilderness, we were more concerned with strange men finding us than wildlife.

We relaxed with our campfire & conversation. The only signs of wildlife were the rodents skittering through our plastic bags of food. After some time, we heard an animal approaching us from the right, where I was sitting. I wasn’t scared because I knew I’ve had success scaring off bears with my car alarm, as we’ve done many times wild camping together. Hoping it might be a deer approaching, that wasn’t my first reaction. However, as it neared, it was clearly larger than any deer could be. It was HEAVY. Worried it might be a bear, I set off my car alarm to scare it away. Lights flashing, horns honking, usually does the trick.

It didn’t. It made itself louder. It was clearly not afraid of us AND BIPEDAL. It couldn’t be a human! It was TOO HUGE & a human can’t move through the swampy muskeg like that! We scoped the entire area exhaustively, including every pull out on the road, before setting up camp & we were the only ones on the entire road. What is this? Where did it come from? How can a bear walk so long on its hind legs? Why won’t it scare off like a bear? like a deer? Like any other wild animal! What the hell is that? The footfalls get louder as the giant nears us. I keep setting off the car alarm, which has no affect on the animal’s approach. Closer & closer. Louder & louder. So obviously a large biped. Bigger than a man or bear. IT. KEEPS. COMING. My god, what is that? We keep shining our flashlights at it, but we can never catch a glimpse of it. IT IS JUST BEHIND THE TREE NOW. WHY CAN’T WE SEE IT? We should see it! Why can’t we see it? Surely, my flashlight should shine on it, as close as it is! It’s so loud, making no attempt to hide the fact that it is approaching us through the muskeg. HOW CAN ANYTHING BIPEDAL WALK THROUGH THE MUSKEG LIKE THAT? It can’t be a man! It’s not a bear! My heart drops, as I secretly know what it is. Why won’t it leave us alone? Just go away! WHY CAN’T I SEE IT? IT’S. SO. CLOSE. Then, it starts throwing rocks at us! Oh, hell no! It’s got HANDS! The rocks are coming from one direction for a short while before they start coming from all directions around us in a circle! THERE’S. MORE. THAN. ONE. How many are there? How did they surround us without our knowing? My car alarm won’t make them stop. It won’t make them go away. WE ARE SURROUNDED. We both silently knew what it was. What THEY were. We had no choice. We threw everything into my truck & sped out of there to head back to civilization.

We were silent for the longest time as we headed back to town. It wasn’t until we reached the paved road that I asked my friend, “What WAS that?” I was hoping she might offer a rational explanation, as she’s very matter-of-fact & grounded. She said, “That was Bigfoot.” We both knew. I let her say it first.

Sometime later, I purchased the book Raincoast Sasquatch which largely features my island. It was estimated we have somewhere between 60-80 of the animals on my island. Within the book, there are reports that echo my own experiences in the exact same locations. There were reports prior at the Ward Lake campgrounds of hearing loud, screaming howls, such as the one I had heard. There were reports prior at Lake Harriet Hunt, including people at the exact same end of the road having had snowballs thrown at them from all around. The only difference was my encounter was rocks in the summer, not snowballs in the winter.

I know this unknown animal exists. I don’t pretend to know what it is. What I do know is that it is massive, loud, bipedal, & often fearless. More fearless than me, now. Feel free to reach out to me, if you want further details or care to talk. Thank you for one of my favorite podcasts!”

8 Responses to “Screaming was a combination of man and animal”

  1. Kevin K

    Having lived in Alaska since 2014, the locals will not think it’s very funny to make fun of “Sasquatch”…aka “Bigfoot”. They are VERY much a REAL part of our life up here in the final frontier (although I think Siberia is much larger and wilder than AK). When you enter Alaska from the ONLY road (ALCAN) it is 92 miles from the US Customs station on the border. There is a gas station (Chevron) at the corner of ALCAN and Tok cutoff Highway. Inside is a bulletin board which has ocassional postings of Bigfoot sightings. A few years ago the villages closest to the Yukon were staying inside their homes because of the extremely loud screams coming from just inside the forest. Livestock and pets were coming up missing. LARGE footprints were found close to the homes during the few fleeting hours of daylight present during that time of the year.

    We were stopped in a REMOTE pull off one night. It was foggy, raining, and cold/damp outside. Within minutes of pulling into this area (closest human building/home was over 250 miles away) we had EXTREMELY loud wood knocking coming from all directions. We could hear “chatter” coming from the woodline. And yes…..we got this recorded on our cellphones. One can hear the definitive wood knocks that were so loud that they were heard AND recorded over the constant noise of the semitruck engine were we driving.

    Most ALCAN truckers won’t stop in this particular area at night during the winter bc of all the activity. This area of the world is so vast and wild….beyond comprehension for even us who live here year round.

    All Americans should come to Alaska at least once in their life…..If only to realize and gain an understanding of the freedoms we have lost (as Americans) in the lower 48. And put yout disbelief and skepticism for these creatures aside. They are VERY MUCH a Real Deal up here.

    Best,

    K. Kennedy
    Wasilla, Alaska

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