Skamania County, WA near Trout Lake

Near the central camp site that overlooks the water. Sighting was made from the road that circles the campground. I was standing on the road near a stump that is near a path that leads down to the western side of the lake. Northwestern part of the campground. Tall douglas fir forestested area. Northwest of Mt. Adams.

Highway 12

2 Sep 2003

11:00 PM

Clear

Sighting,Tracks,Sounds,Other

It was late at night like 11 PM and Austin and myself were roasting marshmallow's and talking near the camp fire. He had to go to the outhouse so i walked him down to it. We heard the brush popping but saw nothing and on the return trip to the campsite I saw a Sasquatch walking from tree to tree looking at me.

My now Wife and step-son. Austin saw the Sasquatch also he was 7 at the time.

On labor day weekend I took my now wife and here 7 year old son to Council lake campground.

There was 7 to 10 other families camping in the same camp ground being labor day weekend. The lake sits on the eastern edge of the dark divide north west of Mt. Adams. We spent the afternoon walking at the lakes edge looking for crawdads and Austin was riding his bike and looking for frogs to catch.

As it got dark some of the other campers kids were horsing around making a great deal of racket. To the point i went down and told them to be quiet. We ate dinner and had smores next to the campfire looking at the stars. Heather had been getting sicker that day with a chest infection so she got in the tent and laid down to rest as me and Austin poked sticks in the fire and talked until about 11:00PM when he told me that he had to go to the bathroom. So we both got flashlights and started walking along a road that looped around our campsite. Not more than a couple of seconds after we started walking down to the wooden outhouse we both heard the brush popping to the northwest of camp near the western shore of the lake. we stopped to scan the area with our flashlights. We didn't see or hear anything for the couple of minutes in the area so we continued down to the outhouse. We got there and he went in for a couple of minutes as i waited outside for him to finish. He came out and said he couldn't go cause he was scared of what we had heard going through the brush. So we headed back up the same road we had came. Then I heard the brush popping again when we had gotten back to the area where the truck was. I again started scanning the trees and the hillside for what was making the sound. That is when i saw it look at me over its left shoulder at about 100ft. My flashlight caught the eye-shine of its left eye as it turned towards me stepping behind a group of three trees hiding. It gave me a side long glance looking around the tree and took another step to the next tree and hid again pausing for a couple of seconds. It stepped out looked at me again then looked down then at me again and then disappeared out of sight. Crouching down behind the trees. I was standing not more than 20 feet from my truck. Austin was by the fire and Heather was in the tent. As soon as i lost sight of it i tried to establish a land mark from where i was standing near a stump near the side of the road and where I had seen the Sasquatch. I jumped in the truck and grabbed the only camera i had with me with a flash and chased after it in a b-line straight to where I had seen it. I told Austin to stay near the campsite and to watch the fire. I headed across the small draw and up the hill towards the group of trees where I had seen it. I thought I was going to throw-up my heart & lungs and my bowels felt like they wanted to fall out of my body. But I continued up the hill after it. I had a really hard time trying to identify the trees it was hiding behind. There was no smell to speak of. I had a camera in one hand and the night stick sized flashlight in the other scanning around me on the side of the hill. I looked for about 10 minutes and couldn't find where it had gone.

I finally started walking back to the camp when i heard Austin's voice saying "Mom Mom I see it" and seeing his flashlight going crazy. I hurried back to camp to see what was going on with him. He was standing by the truck shining his flash light to the left of where i had originally seen it. He told me that he had watched me and my flashlight go up the hill and that I had walked right past it and continued up the hill with it behind me moving off to the left. He had seen it hiding behind the trees on the opposite side that I was on less than fifty feet away from where I was standing with my back to it. He lost sight of it once and then saw it again as it walked up the hill. He described it as big and it had black fur, swinging its arms and walked like a man up the hill. He had gotten a really good look at it. I heard it tripping over some dry brittle branches that were sticking out of the dead fall logs that littered the hillside as it move up the hill. Then silence again.

I told him to stay near the fire again and headed in the direction where he had said it had gone. Walking up boundary trail one I found a fifteen foot long urine spray trail in the middle of the road going up the hill. I continued to look for about another 10 minutes and i didn't see anything more but i could hear it popping through the brush higher on the hill as it moved off away from me. I was not packing a weapon.

I came back to camp and talked to Austin and told him to head to bed. I stayed up for the next 4 or 5 hours keeping a roaring fire until about 4:00 AM waiting to see if i could maybe hear it vocalize but nothing happened the rest of the night. The next day in the morning i headed up the hill where i had seen it to look for signs of its passage and found only a couple of scuff marks since the ground was littered with sticks and cones everywhere. Heather was really coughing hard and we left that day. We where also out of fire wood.

I went back to the area two weeks afterwards and continued looking in the area for hair and prints. In the low spot from campsite to the hill I found a log that had been peeled of its bark in big chunks which was not there the last time i was there.
I searched the area on the west side of the lake and in a swampy area from the direction that it was coming from found a track 20 inches long and 7 1/2 inches wide. I poured a cast and it turned out OK with the sancrete i was using and it being 2 weeks old since the encounter took place.

If you are ever in the area of Council Lake keep your eyes peeled. They do come in close and I think that this curiosity is going to be a key element of getting photos or a body. But be prepared and remember it is a wild animal.

But, it seemed to me that once it had made a decision in what way to travel it continues in the same general direction it was heading when i first saw it.

Totally Black in color. Deep set eyes wide apart. Looked over its left shoulder and looked directly at me. I did not see its lower body. It was very large and would pause behind a tree then step behind another tree and look at me.

Yes in a swampy area two week later which i casted with sancrete I have the cast still and photos of the cast.

A week before I had a vocalization experience while camping at Tillicum Campground. I will submit a separate report for it.

Dave Osborne

I spoke with witness on the phone using Yahoo Messenger. We went over the details of the story and talked at length about the sighting. Witness estimates the size of the creature at about eight feet. The witness estimates the total time of the sighting at about 45 seconds. Please bear in mind this sighting was at night with a starry sky and no clouds. Witness guessed that the creature was investigating who was intruding in its territory.

Witness described the creature as muscular, but he only saw the upper torso of the creature. He described the creature's eyes as orange with large pupil openings. When asked to clarify, he stated that as for the color of the eyes, he was refering to the eyeshine in the tightly focused flashlight beam, and not the iris itself. He followed the creature into the forest to see it again and try to take a picture, but could not find it.

Witness is an experienced camper who was wearing corrective lenses at the time of the incident. There were other campers in the campground but he and his girlfriend (now wife) and her son Austin (now witness's stepson) were camped away from the others.

Austin, who was seven years old at time of the incident, also saw the creature. Witness described his own feelings as excited but not afraid. He was not specifically looking for bigfoot at the time but is always ready for field work if something happens (he is an active bigfoot researcher himself).

Witness said he had bodily tension with a "fight or flight" feeling. In spite of this he ran back to his car and grabbed a camera to take a picture. The camera was a cheap disposable type. He took a picture but due to the darkness of the night it didn't come out. He was able to turn his flashlight on the cretaure and see some details (see witness report).

Witness focused on the creature's face and could only tell the difference in texture of skin around its eyes. He had his flashlight focused in a tight beam during the encounter. The creature was about 100 feet away during the encounter and the creature was moving from tree to tree. It looked at him several times turning and looking over its left shoulder. When the witness saw the creature he was very focused on how its head moved and how deeply set its eyes were. When the creature moved from tree to tree he knew what he was looking at and felt it might be the only time he might ever see one so he didn't want to look away.

From the road's edge to where the campfire was is approximately thirty feet. Fire danger was high at the time so he told Austin to watch the fire. Also witness did not want Austin to see him get attacked if it came to that.

I asked the witness if there had been any long-term effects on either he or Austin since the encounter. He said none of them have had any negative long-term effects from the sighting and they would go camping in the same area again.

Witness is intersted in the bigfoot phenomenon and has been active in several well known bigfoot groups over the last few years. Witness revisited the site two weeks later and found a possible footprint which he casted and took pictures of. Witness sent me pictures of the impression and the cast. It is my conclusion that the witness and his stepson had a bonafide bigfoot encounter.

As a side note, the witness stated that he also noticed the peeled bark of a downed tree which he had not noticed during the initial trip to the campground. In the swamp, the skunk cabbage plants looked like the stalks had been plucked out of the ground. The witness is not claiming this as direct evidence of sasquatch activity, but did find it interesting enough to note.

I was hoping to interview Austin about the encounter (since multiple sightings are rare) but it was requested that I do an in-person interview with him. Since the geographical distance is great, that request could not be accomodated at this time. It was decided if I was up in the witness's area this summer we could arrange an interview while in the field.

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