Sasquatch Chronicles Blog

Witness Observed

Before I start, let me give you my background.
I am 50 yrs old, have 2 kids and 2 grand kids, have been married for over 29 yrs and have been a Toronto Police Officer for over 28 yrs. I started shooting when I was 7 yrs old, started hunting woodchucks and rabbits when I was 9 or 10 yrs old. I did alot of fishing, canoeing, boating, camping and hiking when I was a kid. I started hunting Deer and Bear when I was about 14 or 15 and have every year since, and started hunting Moose about 14 years ago. My parents were Salvation Army Officers and were transferred all over Canada. I have done all of the above all over Canada during my younger years and continue now in Ontario where I permanently reside in Ajax which is just 10 minutes East of Toronto. For the last 10 yrs I have hunted Moose about 30 miles N/E of Sault Ste Marie, Ontario near a small town called Searchmount near Northland Lake.

Over the years I have seen all kinds of wildlife but have never laid eyes on what I saw last week while hunting Moose. I thought I was losing my marbles and that thought was reenforced when I told my brother in law (my hunting partner)the story. I later told my wife over the phone my story and she was intrigued by my story. She apparently told a coworker who found your site on the internet. When I called her to tell her I was on the way home she told me of your site and that there were several sightings in Ontario. That’s when I realized that maybe I wasn’t just seeing things or losing my head. When I got home I checked out your site and figure your the only people I can tell my story to that won’t think I’m completely nuts. Anyhow… to my story…..sorry….it’s a little long but it doesn’t make sense if I don’t tell it all…..

My brother in law and I were hunting Moose just N/E of Sault Ste Marie. On Tuesday 14 Oct 2003 I went up an old trail to where it came to a dead end. I got stuck on my ATV in the mud but managed to get out and turn around. I went part way back down the trail to where I found a clearing and parked on the West side where I could see about 200 yards North and South. I stopped there at about 7:45 am. I put out some Moose cow in heat urine scent on the surrounding trees and a few minutes later did a Moose Cow call on my horn. I looked at my watch which said it was 8:05 am. At about 8:15 am it started to rain. I didn’t want to get my gun wet so I put it back in the gun boot on my ATV. The rain helps hide my scent but at the same time makes it noisy in the bush with the water hitting the ground, leaves, trees etc. At 8:30 am I started hearing footsteps and snapping twigs coming from the N/E of my position.

The rain noise disguised this noise until it was very close to me and because of this I wasn’t ready (gun still in boot). All of a sudden I heard the distinctive sound of a Bull Moose raking his rack on the brush very close. I looked to my left and saw a huge bull raking his rack about 70 yards from me. I reached back and pulled my gun from the boot but dropped the boot cover on the top of my ATV which made a banging noise. When I turned back to where the Moose was, it took off back into the dense brush. I thought this was a bit strange because I have seen several Moose in the past that just stood there. They don’t seem to be afraid of anything and just stand there. I’ve had them stand in front of me for several minutes before walking off into the bush in the past and couldn’t understand why this one took off so fast. I stayed still for about an hour hoping he would come back. During that time I called on my horn and heard him rake his rack on the bush twice and grunt at me as he headed off in a Southerly direction through the bush. It turns out there was a gulley just out my line of sight that he used to walk around me and disappear.

I was later able to raise my brother in law on the radio who showed up and went to where I had seen the Moose. He checked the bush and found fresh tracks which showed the Moose had gone around me in this gulley which was just out of my line of vision. He suggested that I sit near where the Moose had come out and see if he might come back. I then crossed the clearing and sat on my ATV about 5 yards from where I saw the Moose and sat facing East. Again I sprayed some Moose Cow in Heat urine scent on the trees around me and did a few calls on my horn. By this time it was around 12:30pm. I had decided that I would sit there for the rest of the day hoping to see the Bull come back. While there I ate my lunch, got off the ATV a few times to stretch my legs, had a few cigarettes and even had a little snooze. During this time my back was to the gulley that the Bull had used to walk around me. At about 1:30pm I started hearing heavy thumps behind me every now and then. Every time I heard one, I would turn around but there was nothing there. I should mention that it was still raining. The sound of the rain hitting the ground or the leaves was quite loud but these thumps were much louder. They sounded like a stone or something heavy hitting the ground, but every time I turned around, I saw nothing.

At about 5:25pm I got off the ATV to stretch my legs and have a smoke. I put my gun on the front bag of the ATV to make sure I had it within reach and stood in front of the ATV facing the gulley which was to my rear prior to this. While I was having my smoke I started hearing the distinctive sounds of footsteps coming from the gulley (snapping branches and leaves crunching). I kept my eyes on the gulley while I reached for my rifle. I thought the Bull was coming back. When I looked into the gulley about 40 yards straight in front of me I saw what I thought was a man walking towards me. He was stooped over and looked like he was having trouble walking in the bush. He grabbed a tree and swung himself around and ducked or dove down behind some thick brush. The total time of this took 3 to 5 seconds and he disappeared. He looked to me as if he was dressed all in black with a black toque or a balaclava on his head. The reason I though he was wearing a toque was his head seemed to be long at the back like a man wearing a toque. It looked like it was wearing a jacket and the front of his jacket was open half way and I could see a different color of lining showing around the neck area. It looked like it was light gray or almost blue on the chest area in the shape of a ‘V’.

I couldn’t really say how tall it was because his legs were behind thick brush and I could only see to about mid thigh. But I would have guessed at the time that he was anywhere from 5’8″ to 6′ tall. But he was about 40 yards away and it’s hard to judge height or size in the bush when you’re not sure of the distance. His arms seemed too long for a man but he was extremely muscular, like a body builder with the typical ‘V’ shape build. There was definitely no fat on him at all. I could see the different muscle groups on his upper body and arms bulging out and could see that it had a washboard stomach. When he grabbed the tree I saw that he had hands, not paws. He swung around the tree and dove for cover as if trying to hide from me. As I said earlier, it was a dull day and was raining and he looked wet. He was covered with black or dark brown hair and it looked like the hair was stuck to him fairly closely because he was wet. What also gave me the body builder impression was that he seemed to have no neck, or he had so much muscle on his shoulders that it gave that appearance. On top of all this his shoulders were extremely broad.

There was a line of dense brush leading off to my left from where it dove into which carried on for about 30 – 40 yards. About 10 to 15 seconds after it went behind this brush, I heard a hoarse, raspy cough followed by a long, hoarse, sad sounding howl. It sounded like a wolf howl but much deeper than any wolf I’ve ever heard. The sound came from about 20 yards from where I first saw it dive for cover.

When I first saw it, I thought it was a man maybe lost in the bush. But my first thought was “Why isn’t he wearing any orange” and “if he’s lost, why doesn’t he just ask for help”. But the howl made me realize quickly that this was no man. The next thing going through my head was “What the hell was that?”. That was no Moose. It was definitely not a Wolf or a Bear. It was like nothing I had ever seen in 35 years of hunting. What it looked like to me was a Gorilla or very close to one, but it walked upright, not on all fours. I stood there motionless for almost an hour and a half waiting to see if it would show itself again.

During that time I remembered a show I saw on the Discovery channel about a month before this trip about a man and his son that were hunting in British Columbia where they saw a large animal throwing rocks at them. They took off and reported it to whoever and they later figured out it might be a Bigfoot warning them to get out of his area. I then thought about the loud heavy thumping noises behind me and realized that maybe this creature was throwing something at me. After a while it started to dawn on me that I may have just seen a Bigfoot and I started to get just a little scared. I normally leave the bush after dark when hunting but this night I left about a half hour prior to make sure I had lots of time. I was going to go back to that area the next day looking for that Bull but I couldn’t bring myself to go anywhere near that spot. That’s the first time in 35 years I have ever been afraid in the bush.

Since then I have wondered if this thing I saw is what scared the Bull away. Like I said earlier, I have seen many Moose in the bush and have never seen one run from me like that. Interestingly though, from where the Bull ran off to where I saw this creature was only about 50 yards.

Another thing…I don’t know if this means anything or not….Where I was sitting I saw a large, probably Moose leg bone laying on the ground about 5 feet from my ATV. It wasn’t cut or sawed, it had been broken or snapped. It looked to be about at least a year old.