Hoss's Notebook

I thought some of the readers might be interested in some intriguing B.C.Sasquatch stories and encounters I have gathered from the 1960's through to the present.
There's also some fabulous photographs of the rugged Pitt Lake region taken from the air at the following link:
http://www.globalairphotos.com/pitt_lake/96posters/plh96013.html

Pitt Lake is 25 to 30 miles up the Fraser River from Vancouver B.C. The lake is very rare in that it is one of the largest "freshwater" lakes in the world affected directly by Pacific Ocean tides.


An incident in the early 1960s that got me deeply interested in the subject of Sasquatch went something like this: A logging company owner by the name of Joe Manuck had a smaller show at a place on Pitt Lake called Frenchman's Bay (now known as Christian Cove on the maps). He went up the mountain about one mile or so to get at some big timber in a very steep and rugged canyon. In the process of setting up a temporary camp for his crew and cook, Manuck towed a wood frame and plywood cook/bunk house on 3-ft-round skid logs up the valley with a D-8 Cat. After Manuck logged the show and got most of the good wood out, he left the old cook/bunk house up there for family and friends to use as a hunting cabin.


One weekend during the fall of about 1962, my friends Fred Gerak, Ron Gerak and Vince Manuck Jr. headed up to the area for some blacktail deer hunting.
They reached the place late on a Friday afternoon and proceeded to give the old cabin a quick sweep to get rid of the mouse droppings, chop enough firewood to last a couple of days, cook some dinner and then hit the sack early for some much needed rest. Sometime during the middle of the night they were all rudely awakened by a massive crash of something hitting the outside of the cabin hard enough to dislodge the stove pipes and fill the entire cabin with black soot and choking smoke. At first light in the morning they inspected the cabin fully expecting to find a giant boulder, claw marks from a big bear or some other such sign on the outside walls but found nothing.
I went up the following weekend on a hunting trip and had a good look around the cabin for myself. I found no broken branches on any of the small alders that had sprung up beside the cabin or anything else to indicate something with a rational explanation responsible for crashing into the cabin. Over the years I often pondered the thought of what could have possibly hit the cabin's walls "so high up" above the skid logs (on the bunk side where everyone was sleeping and probably snoring a bit) with the force required to knock the stove and its pipes completely out of commission. Not a one of us could figure this out until a later date when the stories of Sasquatch began to quietly circulate amongst the area's loggers



2
In the late 1960s, myself and a few other commercial fishermen and old hand loggers went to visit Oscar Greenland (now deceased), a long-time hand logger and permanent resident of Pitt Lake. Oscar seemed to enjoy our visits as we always brought a bottle of his favorite gin and some type of a treat for his faithful old dog. Sometime during the hours long BS session, the subject of Sasquatch was injected into the noisy conversation.
Oscar told us about a time some years back when he was heading up the lake towards home at first light on a beautiful summer morning. He went on to explain that the lake was a flat as glass and there wasn't a breath of wind. As they were heading from point to point he happened to glance towards the shoreline and noticed a rhythmic splashing about 300 yards away.
Out of curiosity he decided to head his old Easthope powered ex-gill-netter towards the beach in case someone was in trouble. As he got closer he noticed a downed alder or cottonwood tree laying in the water with what appeared to be a huge, dark colored man-ape jumping up and down on it - looking for all the world like it was simply playing and totally amused by the splashes it was making in the water. Oscar went on to explain that once the ape-like creature spotted him getting closer, it went up the tree faster than any man could have possibly gone and quickly disappeared into the bush.
Old Oscar then asked us all if we thought there were any grizzly bears in the Pitt Lake country. While none of us had ever seen or heard of a grizzly bear down low in his general neck of the woods, we asked him why he enquired. Oscar said that one day he was up behind his cabin cutting shake blocks when his dog suddenly began to growl, bark and generally go crazy.
Oscar said he stared in the direction the dog's gaze was fixed upon and saw what he thought was about an 8-foot tall grizzly standing on its hind legs partially hidden behind some alders. Oscar went on to say that he'd heard plenty of bears grunt and cougars scream in his days in the bush, but had never heard such a tremendously loud roar come out of any animal he knew of.


3
Then in the late 1960s, two friends that had been hired by Joe Manuck to clean some of the bigger rocks off a logging road (done to prevent the cat skinner's kidneys from taking a terrible pounding) reported to me that they had been followed by something big and black that stayed well hidden just out of sight but not earshot. (Note: This particular logging road is roughly two miles from Frenchman's Bay and three miles from what used to be Oscar Greenland's homestead.)
Equipped with large steel bars to pry the rocks loose, they would then roll the boulders to the edge of the road and into the bush. While taking breaks from their job, they would constantly hear something breaking branches not too far in the bush. When they moved, it moved. The more intent they became in listening (probably because they were scared by now) the more they could hear footfalls. Once purposely peeking into the bush, one of them caught a glimpse of what he thought was an awfully tall black bear. Although nothing else eventful happened, they did mention that whatever was out there in the bush making noise followed them up to the top of the mountain and halfway back down again before becoming disinterested with their rock rolling.


4
About 1973 or 1974, I was down by the Fraser River talking with some of my old hand-logger commercial fishermen friends and the subject of Sasquatch happen to come up in the conversation. That was the first time I had ever heard that at times these beasts might make some form of nest or bed.

Old Bob was a local shake splitter who had just returned that same day from a deer-hunting trip up in the Hedley country. He somewhat shyly explained to the group that he found a large animal bed located on a perfect vantage point with six-inches of fresh evergreen tree boughs laid carefully in the bottom. He went on to explain he had also found quite a few piles of huge human-type droppings that no man or animal he knew of could make. Apparently these droppings were located about 75-feet from the bed and concentrated in one general area. Old Bob also went on to seriously explain that the bed he'd found had plenty of darker colored hair in the bottom of it and stunk like hell.
Now if I remember right, about six people burst out laughing. At that old Bob became extremely angry and remarked he would take any one of us assholes (excuse the language) back up to Hedley at that very minute and show us the bloody Sasquatch bed he'd found. Seeing that old Bob was seriously mad, the entire group said they were sorry and jokingly believed him. Sadly, nobody took Bob up on his offer. I wish to this day that I would have.



5
During the fall of 1975 a friend of mine John Sheriff decided to do some deer hunting up in the Chehalis River country. Although John didn't see any deer that day, he said he spotted something very strange. Some years later he asked me how far and well I thought a black bear could walk on its hind legs.
I told him that they look pretty clumsy up there on their hind feet and take short, jerky strides with their paws held in front of them somewhat curled in and pointing down.
While summing up my answer, John looked puzzled and said while he sat and watched a likely looking area for deer, he now believed what he saw was a dark-brown Sasquatch quietly and smoothly slinking from tree to tree, as if it was using them for cover.


6
In 1995, I had a report from a good friend Dan Gerak owner of the Pitt River Lodge about a fresh set of 17" Sasquatch tracks he found while hiking along a very remote creek in the upper Pitt River country.
Dan said that he and a couple of friends had hiked up a small creek a few miles in search of some good rainbow trout fishing. In a very remote and rugged area they came across four or five 17" Sasquatch tracks impressed into a dampened natural earth slide along the creek.
Dan explained the tracks were farther apart then he could fully stretch his legs and so clear that he could see dermal imprints in the bottoms. Interestingly, Dan also said that while flying in helicopters over the years, he noticed that the valley he found those Sasquatch tracks in, - is the only one that links up cleanly with the Harrison Lake country and has no boxed canyons or obstructions. A possible Sasquatch migration route?


7
There have been a few reports from loggers and others over the years of Sasquatch sightings concentrated in this general area. Glen Bohn wrote a piece in The Vancouver Sun a few years back of a Sasquatch sighting by a local logger that worked out of the main camp at Alvin, BC. Also a documentary-type film titled Alden's Outdoors that went into detail on Sasquatch and some form of giant salamander-type creature sightings in this area. Interestingly, Dan Gerak also has two recent sighting reports (from either guests of his lodge or people he knows) of these black salamander-type reptiles seen crossing the road. Below is a copy of the Vancouver Sun article (in part) for informational purposes only:
The Vancouver Sun, Tuesday, October 18, 1994
Lower Mainland Section
Older forests ‘as rare as sasquatches’
GLENN BOHN
Sun Environmental Reporter
The mufflers blasted and the brakes whined as a worker just two years away from retirement inched his truck around the hairpin curves. Between gear shifts, George jabbed a finger towards the second-growth forest in the previously logged Pitt River Valley below. The valley floor on either side of the log-littered river looked like a lush green carpet.
George, 63, the local shop steward with the woodworkers’ union and an employee of J.S. Jones Logging Ltd, said that most people don’t realize how fast trees grow back after clearcutting. The trouble is, the average age of the trees in the valley is 60 years and they wouldn’t normally be harvested for another three or four decades. So the logging company wants to go into other publicly owned forests in adjacent valleys. But never-logged watersheds near the Lower Mainland are becoming as elusive as the sasquatch, a legendary man-like animal that is supposed to live deep in the wilderness.
The past summer, during the last truck run of the day, George saw some kind of black-haired beast walking on two legs. Black bears don’t normally walk like that, he noted. “I’m not saying it was a sasquatch, but this creature was over six feet tall,” he said. © The Vancouver Sun


8
About 1995 I had the opportunity to make a deer hunting trip (with my brother, a friend from work and his older brother) into the Yalakam River country, not too far from Lillooet. Looking at the map now, I believe we hunted off a logging road that ended at the headwaters of Leon Creek, in the Camelsfoot Mountain Range. Although we didn't get any deer that particular trip, I did bring home a multiple Sasquatch sighting report.
On the evening of our first day hunting we went in towards the end of this logging road (called Upper Swamp Road on wooden markers along the way) and stopped in a logged off draw about ¾ of a mile from the end of the road. When we got out of the truck in this valley, my friend Sil mentioned that his uncle had been coming up this same road the previous fall and spotted what he thought was a black bear digging roots about 60 feet from the far treeline. Looking at the spot he was pointing towards, I would say it was no more than 100 yards or so into the clearing from our vantage point. Seems his uncle stopped and readied his rifle to take the bear when it presented a clear shot. Quite soon the somewhat surprised animal suddenly realized it was being watched and quickly stood up.
Sil went on to explain that his uncle literally got the shock of his life when a huge Sasquatch now loomed in front of him and with four or five giant steps hit the treeline and disappeared from sight into the timber. Apparently Sil's uncle was so shaken by what he had just seen that upon his return home he vowed to close family and friends that he'd never to go into this country again for as long as he lived.
Sil also told of meeting two very old hunters at this same location the previous fall that mentioned in a tailgate conversation of seeing a Sasquatch at this very spot the year before. In fact, they said they had made this trip into the area with the hopes of seeing the creature again.
It might be interesting to note that when I went over to the general area where the Sasquatch was sighted I got a strange, uneasy feeling. The bush was so bloody thick and dark you couldn't see 30-feet into it. I also remarked to Sil that this area gave me the creeps and it seemed as if it was a dead zone. Besides the breeze whispering through the tree tops, there wasn't a sign or a sound of another living creature to be seen or heard.


9
In mid-October 1996, I made a hunting trip for mule deer bucks into the Pasayten Valley. The Pasayten River Valley is located west of the town of Princeton off of the Hope-Princeton Highway just east of the border of Manning Park, then some 10 to 12 miles in the bush very close to the border of the state of Washington. I towed a 16-foot trailer into the area with my truck and decided to make camp at a favorite spot of mine in a clearing along Peeve Creek.
Being truly tired from both the three-hour drive from home and the stress from a week’s work, I made a quick dinner, washed it down with some cool mountain water from the creek, and then hit the sack early for some much needed rest.
About midnight I awoke, got out of bed, and then quickly stepped outside into the cold to answer the call of nature. Upon opening the trailer door, I was surprised to see snow quietly falling with a light skiff already accumulated on the ground. After attending to the business at hand, I quickly climbed back into my warm bed with high hopes that the snow outside would be around to offer decent tracking conditions come morning.
A crisp, clear dawn found me slowly hiking in towards Trapper Lake, high in the hills above and east of Peevee Creek. I hadn’t gone too far when suddenly I cut across a fresh trail of huge, five-toed, barefoot, man-like tracks made in the inch or so of freshly fallen snow. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing, and upon careful examination these man-like tracks did not appear to have any type of claw or nail marks ahead of the toes like that of a grizzly or black bear would. These man-like tracks were an estimated 16 to 17 inches long by 7 to 8 inches wide with a stride of about four to five feet — much further than I could possibly step even stretching my legs out.
I followed this reasonably straight line of giant man-like tracks for several hundred yards until they entered a thicket of young evergreens and blow-downs. These barefoot tracks seemed strange in that they did not wander about like the tracks of most wild animals would and showed little or no straddle from an imaginary line through their center. Thinking back, it almost seemed like the maker of those tracks was heading for a place with a purpose in mind.
After looking into the thicket and envisioning all sorts of strange scenarios, I decided I didn’t want to meet the maker of those tracks and rapidly hightailed it out of that country for the season. I did, however, return to the same area the following September with a friend and we managed to harvest two beautiful mule deer bucks. Although I looked hard, I found no further tracks or possible Sasquatch sign.
Over my last 40 or so years of hunting big-game in the wilds of British Columbia, I have, at times, been far too close to big bears. I have smelled, seen and tracked both grizzly and black bears. The tracks I found in the Pasayten River Valley during October of 1996 "were not" the tracks of a bear or any other animal that I am familiar with.

10
During the fall of 1998 I knew a party hunting the Jedney area off the Alaska Highway that had a half a moose ripped down off a meat rack that was a measured 14-feet from the ground. Upon a very close check, these experienced hunters didn't see any grizzly or black bear sign around the area. Nor could they find anything else to indicate they knew who or what stole their moose. I checked out the meat rack myself (I was camped only about ½ mile away and our lower hanging moose meat wasn't touched) and came to the conclusion that unless someone came 40-miles into the bush equipped with a big ladder, there was no way in hell they could have got the moose down - besides, the rope the held the meat up was snapped and not cut.


11
The summer of 1998 found a group of teenage boys preparing to have a campout on the rear of a private 18-acre piece of property located outside of Deroche, B.C. The boys had set up their tents in a glade (roughly 200-300 feet away from the family home) inside the edge of the forest, which still remains quite wild and rugged, at the base of the Coast Range Mountains.
It was just shortly before dark, and all the boys were gathered around a small central campfire when something screamed at them with a huge volume from inside the edge of the forest. Whatever screamed at them could also be clearly heard pacing back and forth and breaking heavy branches inside the treeline.
In a follow-up conversation at my home, one of the boys described the warning-type scream as monkey-like with a volume that would be impossible for any human voice to duplicate without the assistance of an amplifier.


12
On June 30, 2003 we had another report of a possible Sasquatch encounter from the same above-mentioned property outside of Deroche, BC. According to the three scared witnesses who had wandered into a swampy and remote area of the property hardly ever visited by the residents, threatening high-pitched screams, the snapping sounds of heavy branches and strange, non-human mumbling or murmuring voices and other unintelligible sounds were heard after they stumbled upon a crudely built bed made out of old cedar boughs. The witnesses also claimed to have smelled a very strong odor described as being a mixture of sulphur, rotten meat or eggs and human excrement.
On Tuesday, July 29th we had another report of possible on-going Sasquatch activity from the above-mentioned property owners outside Deroche, BC. Shortly before dark the residents reported hearing extremely heavy footfalls outside that shook the entire house, scaring the females at home at the time quite badly. Shortly after this happened, two very loud high-pitched screams were heard coming from just inside the edge of the bush on their property. The sounds of the scream reportedly set off howling from some of the dogs on farms in the area. Shortly after dark the residents were driving towards town on a road in front of their property when a very large rock suddenly flew from heavy bush at the roadside and narrowly missed their vehicle.


13
Yet another report from outside Deroche, BC:
Hi my name is Christina and I live in Deroche, BC. The scream report that is on your site was it heard around 2 am? I was sleeping in a tent on my deck with my dog because it was so hot in the house when at around 2 am a weird very loud scream woke us both up and made us jump out of our skins. All the dogs as far off as I could hear were all barking for a while. Also I heard the same thing about a year ago while sitting in my computer room that faces the north. It too was around 2am in the morning.
Chris
We Investigate:
We had a chance to investigate the sighting report outside of Deroche and we were lucky enough to find one possible Sasquatch track measuring 16 inches in length by 6 inches in width. Due to the prolonged hot and dry spell of weather we have been having in the Fraser Valley, the ground in the area was hard and dry and did not lend well to making tracks - or tracking any animal at all.
The single possible track we did find appeared to be leading away from what looked to be a crudely built nest or bedding area consisting of scattered cedar boughs, and was situated on the crest of a small knob of soft dirt. Most of the weight appeared to be placed on the toe area of the track as the foot pivoted and curled in a natural stepping motion over the top of the small mound of dirt. The big toe measured 3 inches in length and was impressed into the soil about one and one half inches deep. As this track was not flat and was in a rough area off the main trail, it did not appear to be faked.
We were very impressed with the age and size of the trees in the old-growth forest (mixed red cedar, Douglas-fir, hemlock and various hardwoods, with some trees over 8 feet across) where the on-going sasquatch activity is taking place. If a sasquatch wanted to hide in this old-growth forest I firmly believe it would be next to impossible to see it ... one step behind any one of a thousand of the huge trees would be all it would take for any intelligent animal to stay very well concealed.


14

A report from Bill Hay...
Spindle Canyon (located high above Debeck Creek near the northerly end of the Pitt Lake).
Sasquatch scream and sighting report, August 14, 2003.
A buddy and me 3 weeks ago were hiking up into Spindle Canyon, looking for Slumach's lost gold mine
. It was starting to get dark so we decided to make camp for the night … just as we were both starting to fall asleep we heard the most blood curdling scream then a bunch of low garbled noises, We sh-t, turned on every light we had with us and scoured the bush around us...We could smell this very rotten odor (rotten eggs & sh-t?). Any ways we never went back to sleep that night, and at daybreak we proceeded to hike further up in to the canyon. We couldn’t believe our eyes, there it was crouched over a pond in the creek catching minnows. It never saw us. Suddenly it turned around and looked at us, stood up and bolted into the bush. I must say we went back down the way we came up … I’ll never go back into that area again. This is a true story and if you wish you can contact me by cell phone at xxx-xxxx .
B. Hay

Note: In a follow-up phone conversation B. Hay went on to explain that he has been into this area in the past searching for gold and has found 16-17 inch sasquatch tracks himself, and on one other occasion had reports from a friend that had been in the same area prospecting and had seen large barefoot man-like tracks in the snow leading away from the fairly recent wreckage of a helicopter high in Spindle Canyon.
B. Hay estimated the height of the Sasquatch he encountered at somewhere between 7 and 8 feet tall.

About mid-August 1960, I was asked by a good friend Barry to go on a two or three day camping trip to Pitt Lake. Barry's dad Vince Sr. had arranged a boat ride into an isolated beach at the mouth of Debeck Creek with his brother Joe who at the time owned and operated several big logging operations in the Pitt Lake region.


Note: At the time Barry and I would have been eight or nine years old, Barry's younger brother Terry (who also tagged along) would have been about five or six, and Vince Sr. would have probably been in his late 30s.


Joe picked us up at Pitt Lake boat launch after dropping his logging crew off at camp one early morning, and we traveled by speed boat north up Pitt Lake about 15 kilometers. Joe dropped us and our gear off on the beach at the mouth of Debeck Creek with a promise to keep an eye out for us when he passed by each morning. Since the weather was warm and clear, it was decided no tent was required (probably because Barry and I insisted to his dad that we camp in the wilds just like our heroes Davy Crockett and Daniel Boone) and we would sleep in our bags and blankets under the stars. Vince Sr. and young Terry picked a beautiful flat spot on the pea-gravel beach right near the mouth of Debeck Creek to camp. Barry and I decided we wanted to camp like the Indians and mountain men did and found a spot about 80 feet away to lay our sleeping bags. We tucked in a hole right in under a ten foot high root ball that was still attached to giant Red-cedar log. The hole inside the cedar trees's root system looked more like a little cave just big enough for us to crawl in.


. We did the usual stuff that kids and dads do while camping: roasted wieners, went swimming in the lake, sat around and cooked over the camp fire, went on short hikes up the creek to try fishing, and generally had a bunch of fun. We did, however, do one thing that was a little different that may have played a part in what happened: while back at our hideout Barry and I had a long wolf howling contest on our first night there (until his dad told us to shut up and go to sleep).


Although I can't for the life of me remember the sound that woke Barry and I up from a deep sleep under our log, I do recall that it was just beginning to break day. I also remember that we both jumped up out of our sleeping bags and headed for his dad at a real quick pace.


Once Barry and I got over to where his dad was sitting with his .303 British army rifle clutched in his hands, we could plainly see he was rattled, shaking like a leaf, and as white as a ghost. Even though we were kids we both knew by looking at his dad's reaction and facial expressions that something was seriously wrong. Thinking back, when you see real fear in a grown person, it's little things like this that you can never forget.
I remember that Barry and I were scared stiff after seeing his dad, but we did ask him what was wrong. He replied to us that he kept his loaded rifle aimed at a big black bear "walking continuously on its hind legs" that had been sniffing, pawing and circling around and around the log that Barry and I were sleeping under. Now even at this young age Barry and I were not stupid city slickers. We both came from hunting families and knew that bears don't remain on their hind legs while walking. I clearly remember that we gave each other a look and knew that his dad's story was pure bullshit (excuse my language).


In any case, I also remember that as soon as we finished gulping down our breakfast the first thing that Barry and I did was casually wander back over to our log hideout to search the ground for tracks. I do remember finding some big tracks but all they really were was holes in the pea-gravel where something had gone around the big root-ball in circles.


It might be of interest to note that in 2003 I was contacted by a Brad Hay from Abbotsford, BC, who reported seeing a Sasquatch not more than one mile from where we camped at the mouth of Debeck Creek. Also, John Green's report (page 19 Encounters with Bigfoot) of the two prospectors that encountered an estimated 12-15 foot Sasquatch that left 22 to 24 inch tracks was no more than five miles from this location. John Green also received a report from two men who in 1933 witnessed a Sasquatch eating berries about three miles from Debeck Creek. I also watched a private 1967 video of a prospector/trapper named Warren Scott who lived in a huge tree house. Scott had built his house 20 feet from ground level (because of deep snow in the winter) some 5000 feet up on top of a mountain located at the northerly end of Pitt Lake. Scott showed his sketches of Sasquatch on camera and made a comment about a Sasquatch migration route that has stuck with me for all these years. Believe it or not, my life-long friend Dan Gerak (and 3 witnesses) who owns the upper Pitt River Lodge (http://www.pittriverlodge.com) once found fresh 17-inch Sasquatch tracks in a particular valley, and made the exact same comment as Scott to me about a Sasquatch migration route over 30 years later. Gerak told me this after spending many hours flying all over this country in Jet Ranger helicopters and noting that there is "only one open valley" between Pitt, Stave and Harrison lakes that does not end in sheer cliffs.


If I was ever going to get serious about finding Sasquatch — and had the time and means to do it — I wholeheartedly believe the place to do it would be up in the Boise Valley country northwest of the head of Pitt Lake. However, I would never consider going into the Boise Valley alone. Why? My own experiences and the following information (and good advice) from page 22 of John Green's book Encounters with Bigfoot: "The mountain country around the head of Pitt Lake is extremely rugged and quite a few people have gone in there and never come out. It is supposed to hold a lost gold lode of fabulous wealth, which is why some of the people have gone there, but whether or not the story of the gold is true the story of the missing people certainly is. I have noted the gradual increase in the total (note: the number missing people is now 22) during my years in the newspaper business. The terrain itself provides plenty of reasons why lone venturers might never be seen again, but there are persistent traditions that the sasquatch have something to do with it."


Although John Green did not mention it (or didn't know it at the time of his report) the two prospectors that encountered an estimated 12-15 foot Sasquatch that left 22 to 24 inch tracks, were in the Boise Valley. The Boise has never been logged and has giant cedar and fir trees over 1000 years old. It is also the "only" valley at about the 4000 foot level northwest of Pitt Lake that contains small lakes. How do I know this stuff? When I had my guiding and wilderness adventure company going I was deeply involved (and have the newspaper articles, maps and videos to prove it) in getting the Boise Valley set aside as part of a park in the Pinecone/Burke Wilderness Area. I was also "the only" person that supplied water and land transportation into the Boise Valley and upper Pitt River Valley.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- During the fall of 1977 a few friends and I decided to make a duck-hunting trip to Red Lake up in the Kamloops region. We packed up a couple of camouflaged boats, 50 or 60 rubber mallard decoys, grub, guns and headed for the high country.
Once we reached Red Lake high on the Kamloops plateau, my friend Randy and I decided to hunt a marshy area on lake that we knew well from our eastern brook trout ice fishing trips during the winter. (Note: At the time the closest ranch or building was a good 10 miles away over bush roads.)


We had our boat loaded before first light and made for the marsh. Once there we set out our decoys and slipped the boat back into the high weeds and grass about 60 feet from open water.
Hunting was slow due to warm weather and little wind. We would blow ourmallard calls once in awhile hoping to entice a duck from the far end of the lake but nothing was moving. A few hours had passed and we had not fired a single shot.


Myself and Randy were both bored and staring out over our decoys on Red Lake when something suddenly but quietly surfaced just outside the edge of our flock of decoys. What came up appeared to us to be a human-type head covered in long, wet hair ... something what a person with long hair would look like if they surfaced while swimming. The skin under the hair as well as the eyes, appeared dark brown in color. Our view of this strange head was about even with the shoulders, although they did not break the surface of the water. The eyes (what you could see of them under the hair) looked dark (no white) like an animal's. The face had no expression or movement. It seemed to look at our decoys and us for maybe 10 or 15 seconds, and then slipped silently under the surface with a slight swirl or wake and it was gone. Nothing else was seen or heard.


When we returned to Cliff Tuscon's ranch where we were staying, I asked him aside if he had ever seen anything like what we witnessed on Red Lake that morning. I'll never forget the look he gave me. I think he figured I was either piss drunk or on the verge of going crazy. In any case, old Cliff never saw anything like what I described in his 40 years up in that country.


-------------------------------

Good Sasquatch Huntin',
© Ken "Hoss" Kristian


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