Sasquatch Chronicles Blog

Jesse writes “I’m writing this about an encounter my cousin and I had in the early 90s. I grew up in an area outside of Aberdeen Washington in a little town called Montesano.

I live in Boise Idaho now. My cousin and I were avid outdoors enthusiasts, I was 13 or 14 at the time and my cousin was ten years older than me. One of our favorite things to do was track cougars and watch their hunting patterns. We had planned a 10 day “backpack” camping trip at a place called spider lake. And we had taken the back way thru Matlock to get there.

We had been hiking and following and watching a pair of juvenile cougars that had been traveling and hunting as a pair. Along with our gear we were both armed my cousin had let me use his ar-15 and he had his sks. Which is a good confidence boost way out in the woods. We were on our 4 day in and we were about 1 hour or two behind the brothers, just fascinated at how they hunted, almost like a pack. It was incredible. We had followed their tracks down this light game trail and we came to a small meadow of grass and ferns with a small embankment on the opposite side. To our left was a large patch of devils clubs. When we stepped out of the wood line we smelled a dead animal that was not fresh. We could see the path through the ferns the led to a beaten down area. When we got to it there was a doah elk that had been dead for at least a day. It was tore up, it’s guts were out it had chunks torn of and we could see were the brothers had picked at it. But the strange thing is it’s throat was completely ripped out and it’s neck was definitely broken, it was almost decapitated.

The area around it looked like it had been thrashed to death, broken sticks, trampled bushed the mud all ripped up. At this point it was starting to drizzle pretty good, so we knew we were not far behind the brothers. But then we saw there tracks leaving as if they were running for their lives. You can tell when a cougar is running from fear and not to chase prey. And the tracks led directly into the devil club thickets. Which is crazy behavior, most animals avoid them like the plague. There was also a set of tracks leading up the embankment that looked like maybe wolf or bear, hard to tell because it looked like they were sliding as they went up. So we crept up the little hill and peeked over the top. The wind was blowing directly in our face and it was starting to rain really good.. Washington rain. We could smell what seemed like a wet dog that had rolled in nasty dead meat.. We were looking at a small Gulley about 30 or 40 yards across with fallen snags and tall ferns, salmon berry bushes We set there for a minute or two just watching, when we saw it move.

At first I thought it was a bear but it was too big and it was jet black. It kind of lifted up and moved toward the other side in a way I can only describe as the way a lizard or snake moves. It didn’t bob, it look like it was sliding or gliding. It went to the top of the little hill and stopped at a pine tree next to a fallen snag. And turned its head and nibbled on its side like a dog bites a flea. I knew instantly it was some kind of wolf/dog. It tuned back and sniffed the air, it had a long snout with what looked like a scraggly goaty, and it’s pointy ears were leaned forward like the could lay down on the top of its head. It shook like a wet dog from its head to its stubby tail, it’s wet hair standing up we could see it’s muscle mass. We were scared sniff at the mere size of this creature, it stood every bit of 5 feet at the shoulders and probably 400 lbs. Then what I saw next paralyzed me with fear and made my heart jump into my throat. It reached up and grabbed the tree with its right “hand” and I saw fingers and an opposable thumb. It pulled it self up and stood on it hind legs. It must have been 6 feet or more. It sniffed the air again and turned and walked around the tree on its hind legs and kind of just rolled over the hill on all fours and was gone. But when it walked its knees were bent like a humans not a dog. We got the F outta there looking back and ready to give this thing a world of hurt if it chased us. We hiked/ran all day until until it was starting to get dark and made it back to the truck. We were about half way down the mountain we I finally could speak. I looked at my cousin and said what the F was that? Without taking his eyes off the road he said “dire wolf”. I said there is no F’ing way that was a dire wolf. He kept his eye straight forward and he said… I know. That was the only time I ever saw anything like that ,same with my cousin.. still don’t know what it was.”