Tonight I will be speaking with Bradey. Bradey writes “I have an encounter story from Yakima Washington area during bow season 2001. Still can’t get my brain to admit what it may have been. It was a bit different then most reports. Id love to chat about it. I’m a long time hunter from Yakima area.”
We will also be speaking to Shannon. Shannon writes “When I was 11, my home life was pretty bad, so being in the woods with my dog was a way for me to get away from the constant stress and recharge. I knew the woods so well, if I didn’t want to be found, I couldn’t be. On the weekends my dog and I would take off by about 8 am and not come back until dinner time. I had a German Shepard at that time. She was very even-tempered but watchful. She saved my life a few years before this incident (that’s a story for another time) so I trusted her with my life.
The day of this incident was in early spring. It had just finished raining. My dog and I walked up through the first field and up to where the running track started. I got a really weird feeling that I shouldn’t take my normal route. I wasn’t scared and I don’t know where that message came from. I decided that I should probably listen to my instincts, so I started walking to the left… on the track, around the football field. I did keep asking myself why I was walking this way. It didn’t make sense at all. I walked a bit further and thought, If I had gone the normal way, I would be in the woods already. Why did I walk this way? I just decided to keep going.
As my dog and I walked, we passed birds in the trees chirping and birds on the ground looking for worms. I could hear birds everywhere. I also saw some rabbits near the edges of the trees. As we were walking around the football field and coming to the end of the purple line on the attached pic, I was thinking about where I wanted to go that day. Should we stay at the first pond (the circle on the pic). Or should we keep going, cross a field of about 10 acres and go to my favorite spot that looked over a small waterfall and two more small ponds.
All of a sudden I noticed that everything was quiet. Nothing moved. I stopped mid step, looked around and saw that all of the birds and rabbits were gone. I didn’t even hear insects. This had never happened to me before so I knew something was really wrong.
Just then I heard a really loud CRACK!. It sounded like something stepped on a really large log and just broke it in half. The sound came from the direction of the trail I was walking toward. I remember looking at my dog who was at my side. She whined and took 2 steps back. I had never seen her scared of anything before. I knew we were in danger so we turned and ran. We ran as fast as I could. (she stayed right by me) We took the shortest way back, closest to the school.
When we were about 100 yards from the mouth of the trail, I got the hit with an overwhelming feeling of hate. I remember stumbling a bit and thinking what the hell was that… I had to see what caused it so I stopped running and turned around. What I saw was this huge dark charcoal colored thing standing at the mouth of the trail staring at me. I was terrified. It just stood there motionless facing me. It didn’t make any sounds either. I just kept feeling like whatever it was, it hated me and wanted to rip me apart.
It had no neck. It had long arms and a really broad chest. I had a neighbor that was 6 foot 2 so I had a familiar size reference at the time and I don’t think this thing was quite that tall, but it was close.
My dog and I turned and ran back home. When we got home I was replaying the incident in my mind. I realized that if something didn’t tell me to go the long way around, I would have been in the woods, at least halfway to the first pond when that thing appeared. I don’t think we could have gotten away from it if we had been in the woods when that thing appeared.”