Nov 16

That Was Not A Bear

A listener writes “On November 1st I went to Isabella Lake, near Shelton, Washington an old homestead preserve of old pastures and orchards surrounded by woods. There is a large circular trail that loops around the open pastures which I entered on the right side of the parking lot at about 9:30 a.m. I saw some mushrooms and when I got to the curve of the loop decided to go straight into the woods a ways instead of staying on the pasture loop to see if I could see some chanterelles.

I was mucking about in the woods not very far at all off the trail, took a couple pictures of some mushrooms but found nothing edible. On my way back to the main trail I went pee in the woods and I used a Kleenex in my pocket to wipe with and I remember feeling a little guilty for leaving it in the woods. (I covered it with a leaf.)

As I started walking back to the main trail I was overcome quite suddenly with a powerful sick feeling. I felt completely depleted even though I hadn’t walked very far and felt fine the whole way in. It was sort of a queasiness but also a heavy feeling in my head and all my limbs like I might not make it back to the car. I thought I probably just overdid it after Feeling sick for a few days but it was like nothing I’ve ever felt before it was very intense.

I walked onto the main trail and deliberated on whether I should go back the way I came or continue on the loop; it seemed to be about Equal distance either way. I noticed a couple with a dog walking up from the parking lot the way I had to come. Deciding to avoid them I went onward the other way. When I got to the top of the loop, you can go straight into a small orchard or turn left and continue on the loop, I turned left and walked a few yards when I noticed I was suddenly feeling much better.

It was about 10 AM and the bright winter sun was up over the pasture. I stood there for a moment with my eyes closed enjoying the sun on my face and grateful to be feeling better. I noticed the people with the dog were now in about the same spot that I had re-joined the trail below and while I stood there with my eyes closed I was calculating about how long I could stay in there before I have to go so as not to meet up with them especially since I didn’t have a mask with me.

I closed my eyes again and I heard the woman scream a very startled scream like something had threatened her terribly and suddenly. At the same time the dog howled and yelped as if it were in pain or fear or both. And the man let out a sound that sounded like “whoa”.

When I opened my eyes they were about 100 yards away but I could see very plainly the woman, the man and the dog. About 10 feet in front of them was a much taller figure which bounced sideways very very quickly into the woods right at the same spot that I had re-joined the trail earlier feeling so horrible.

I stood there for a minute watching the couple and the dog and they weren’t moving or making any noise. They just stood there perfectly still. I didn’t think that much of it other than wow that’s kind of odd that the ‘brown man’ (which is how my mind registered things,) moved off the trail like that so quickly. I continued on the loop and when I got parallel from where I had last seen the couple and dog across the pasture I couldn’t see them anymore. I assumed they were coming up behind me and I planned on waiting in the car for them to see what that was that scared them. However when I got to the car the couple were walking very quickly towards their truck which was parked right next to me – they had doubled back the way they had gone in.

The woman was carrying the dog which was not small and the man was walking very quickly with his keys out trying to get to the truck as fast as possible. It’s hard to describe the look on the woman’s face; she looked absolutely traumatized and just completely wrecked. It reminded me of when I came upon a car crash when I was in college and there was a fatality and the woman who was severely injured but not dead looked at me from the crumpled up car. It was the same kind of vacant traumatized expression mixed with disbelief and terror.

I was sitting in the car and they were parked on my right side so I rolled down the passenger side window and hollered at the man he was getting in the driver side of his truck. I said “hey did you all see a bear over there?” He wouldn’t look at me as he hastily opened the truck door, and all he said was, “that wuddn’t no bear.”

That’s when it fully hit me that the “brown man” was not an animal. I hollered again and said “hold up please?” but he just jumped in his truck and shut the door. The woman meanwhile had put the dog on the ground and when it ran around the back I could see it was fine, wasn’t limping or injured there was no reason for her to be carrying it like she was. She opened The side door of the truck and it jumped in. I felt weird sitting there, like these people need some space right now so I just started my engine and pulled out and they pulled out right behind me. They followed me all the way to the 101 on ramp that I got on but they kept coming straight into Shelton.

When I got home I told my husband what had happened and we went back together and retraced my steps. We saw some broken trees that were cracked off pretty high but no footprints, though the forest floor and pine needle path wouldn’t really show prints. We never got that ill feeling walking back in the woods where I had peed.

I continued on to the top of the loop where I had been standing with my eyes closed and my husband stayed down below where the people were with the dog so that I could get an idea of the scale. My husband looked to be quite a bit shorter than the brown figure had been standing in the same spot. I would say the brown figure was probably 8 to 9 feet tall easily, with a blocky head and upper body that was much bigger proportionally than the legs. It was too far away to tell the texture of the figure, but there was no differentiation like from pants to shirt to head etc. it was just a big brown figure that bounced unnaturally quickly sideways into the woods.

This encounter has affected me greatly, and as you can likely understand, I am very keen to speak with the couple if at all possible. I would very much appreciate any advice you may have on how I might approach finding them. I thought about putting up a sign at the trailhead board.

I’m also very curious to understand that powerful sick feeling that overcame me and vanished just as quickly.

Thanks very much for your time.”

4 Responses to “That Was Not A Bear”

  1. lyonflyin

    In 2010 or 2011 while hiking in the Sierras NW of Downieville on the Downie River, up near where Rattlesnake Creek dumps into the Downie, I suddenly felt exactly as this interviewer did, and felt I could not walk further, felt like I had no energy, dizzy, was going to fall over if I didn’t immediately sit down. I had not seen anyone on the trail so was alone. I sat right there with my legs over the side of the trail. I thought maybe I was having heart arrest or something but knew my heart was ok. I felt slightly nauseous. I also felt uncomfortable for being there. After a while I began to feel better and the symptoms went away, and I stood up and thought of continuing up the trail. I made the short distance to the bridge where Rattlesnake Ck dumps into the Downie and for an unknown reason, did not feel safe or comfortable going further on the trail. In fact I could not make myself go further, tho at the same time was a bit upset that I had to now go all the way back and cut my hike short. I was visiting my old haunts as I then/now live in Alaska, but enjoy getting into the Gold Country as much as I can when I go “Outside”.
    Even tho I had seen the Patty film years before and believed/knew BF existed, it never entered my mind about them that day.

    This year, (home in AK), I was on Bear Creek where I love to camp when I have only a day or two to spend away, in Hope, Alaska, at the same miners camp I use; and had gotten my prospecting/sniping gear together to walk the short distance to that creek through the dense trees and brush over rough ground. I had my waders on and after setting my bucket and backpack, etc., down at the edge of the creek (where I had dipped my pan before to test for gold), I worked my way across the flooded creek using a strong limb for a “3-point” contact with the slippery creek bottom. I felt nothing at that time. I looked over the cliff rising up in front of me and to the right. It was rotten perpendicular shale covered in ferns moss and plants, and was contemplating scraping into that rotten shale and panning some. Then I turned-about to walk back over to my gear on the original side of the creek. I was still fine. Then, as I faced back across to the other side, I scanned a little bit to my left which would be a bit upstream from where I had inspected, still with the cliff rising up, I noticed a darkened area in the cliff. Large 2 to 3 -foot through logs from the tall forest atop the cliff had fallen over criss-crossing over this darkened area and the broken ends were jammed into the creek providing space behind them and the cliff. All was overgrown with dead limbs, bushes and plants. I was concentrating very hard to discern if there was a possibility of a miners tunnel under there, my eyes “boring” into that darkened space as I stood at my side of the creek. Within a minute of looking over there, I began to feel unsteady. I found myself clumsy so and beginning to feel whoozy so I stepped back onto the dirt bank where it was more solid. Then I felt dizzy. Then really really dizzy. Everything progressed within seconds to the point that I had to sit down or fall over, and thinking that I might feel better sitting. My head was swimming terribly so I tried to lay back. As soon as I did so I felt nauseus as the swimming in the brain escalated. I tried to lean forward and that did not help. Now; I do not take drugs, am not on any RX, have not eaten anything unusual and have a healthy heart, and am a nurse…so there was no reason for this!! Then I figured it out. After reading all of Bobbie Short, after reading all the other sites on BF, and having read all of SC as a member, AND after a sighting in CA on another visit down there where a friend and I saw a juvenile run across the road, I knew what was happening! I struggled to my feet. I held my arms out open wide and softly called out, “OK, babes, I’m going to leave you alone. I’m sorry I didn’t know you were there, and I’m going to go now.” As I said so, I pleaded with my hands open and palms up, moved my hands in a push-back manner toward them several times, turned, and struggled with all my power to stay upright as I slung my arms into my pack and picked up my 5 gallon bucked with crowbar, pans, fold-up showen, etc., and stumbled slowly up and down over the steep terrain back to my camp. I thought; I must be having a cardiac or stroke issue, perhaps, since I had never experienced something like this, trying to deny what had just happened, but no, I was fine before going down there, even had taken a selfie of me and sent it to my kids and looking at that pic again I could see there was nothing wrong with me. Since I was fairly remote, I felt I could not take the chance if it WAs illness, I texted a miner bud north of Anchorage telling him how I felt and that I was headed back. I began to break camp, tarps to untie, totes, gear etc., and realized that I was feeling better by the minute. By the time I made it back out to a paved road, the symptoms were disappearing and by the time back onto the Seward Hiway, completely fine again. I then was fully re-convinced that there was a BF or a family back in behind that cliff tree-fall and I was not welcome. Never smelled anything, or heard a peep over the sound of the flooded creek. Now I know what was going on at the Downie River in 2010-2011 was infra-sound and perhaps I was really lucky. These are the reasons I am too afraid anymore to go alone, sleep anywhere I wish on the ground, or hike after dusk. Even though I go armed to the teeth (44 Redhawk & 4570), it does not matter, I don’t feel safe anymore in the AK bush or CA doing what I used to do; what I love(d) doing, alone, and can’t seem to find anyone to go with while prospecting.

  2. Amy H

    Yup, I’ve had that feeling too. I’ve told the story before in depth on the forum. I’ll never forget it. I thought I was going to die.

    I feel fortunate it didn’t grab me as it was there. I was pretty close to being totally incapacitated. I literally crawled to my car. I willed my suddenly sick body to keep moving because I thought the end was near. I’m not sure why it chose to hit me with infrasound. I literally walked out of a porta poddie and it hit me.

    I knew Sasquatch was around because I heard it several times and a fellow camper had it visit her while she was in her hammock (she didn’t know it was a squatch but what she described told me what it was). I wish I knew why they do that to humans. Is it a test? If you don’t become totally incapacitated, do they leave you alone? If you become incapacitated do they take you? Is it a warning? Clearly it’s a tactic to some end. Who knows….

  3. Cory R

    Interesting sighting. I am down in Olympia and I saw one a few winters ago near the McLane Nature Trail. It was when we had all of the snow and it was solid black. It didn’t dawn on me that’s what it was until it started walking away. It reminded me of the Marble Mountain bigfoot video.

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