Lake Christie, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
"My Story"

I don't even know where to begin. To this day, even the thought of what I'm about to tell you makes every hair on my body stand up, and brings tears to my eyes (why the tears, I don't know, but they are genuine). I have never discussed this with anyone, and hadn't planned to, but after stumbling across your site, I think I've had a change of heart.

I live in Ontario, Canada. It is probably for this reason, that I have never said anything until now. To my knowledge, almost all Sasquatch sightings are along the West coast on the continent, and along the Rocky Mountains. I don't know how many sightings have been recorded this far east, but I know what I saw, and heard on a few separate occasions.

I used to work at a Scout Camp in northeastern Ontario. It is in a very remote location, nearly an hours drive from any civilization and one of the only true "Scout Camps" in all of Canada. It is surrounded by lakes and large hills of dense forest on all sides, and their are a few cottages scattered here and there around the main lake the camp it is stationed on... Lake Christie if I remember correctly. Although I live far away from this place, I worked there every summer from 1996 to 1999. My first experience happened in 1996. I was 16 years old.

As a counselor, every two weeks we were moved around and put in charge of different scout/cub groups (I guess so everyone gets a chance to work with groups of all ages). On this particular rotation, I was working with one of the senior scout groups at the camp. As part of their last week there, they had to partake in what was called a "solo night". This is where each camper is driven by one of the assisstant Camp Directors to a remote location and left for the night, with the bare necessities to survive (a sleeping bag, rations for one day, and two strike-anywhere matches). It was on this particular night that I will never forget the sounds that I heard.

It was late at night in August (I am not exactly certain of the time) and I was sleeping in my tent, in the upper field, which is not exactly on the camp grounds, but up the dirt road quite a ways, and into the bush another 5 minutes walk. All together, probably a 20 minute walk from the main camp ground. In the middle of my slumber I was suddenly awakened by a loud, deep shrieking/squealing sound, that I had never heard before. I sat up in my tent, alarmed, and uncertain of what I had heard. I thought maybe it was one of my colleagues playing a trick on me and the other two counselors who were camped up there alone for the night. Or, one of the other two, for that matter.

This being a camp full of staff who are well known for their pranks, I wouldn't have put it past them. Then, I heard the noise again. It was even louder. At first I thought it was a skunk being attacked by coyotes or something. I have heard that sound before and witnessed it (for those who don't know, skunks actually make a sort of "shrieking/squealing" sound when being mauled to death. I saw it first hand, but that is another story all together -- Ed's note: All mustelidae such as wolverines, weasels, badgers, civet cats, skunks and otters etc emit a loud to groaning squeal or high rolling shriek often sounding like a woman in hopeless distress when caught by predators or in iron set traps. The sound can be very loud & unnerving, even from a wounded rabbit....) However, this sound was much deeper.

Then, just as it had come, the sound stopped. I lay awake for the rest of the night, barely moving a muscle. When morning came, and the sun was bright enough, I slowly came out of my tent, and walked to the main camp ground for breakfast. A few minutes later, the other two councilors came down to the main camp, and gave me a mysterious glance. Then, one of them approached and asked me "was that you making all that racket last night? You scared poor Dave half to death." I just looked at him and said "what racket?" with a stone-cold look. He gave me a knowing look, and walked away. We never discussed it after that, and no one mentioned pulling a prank on me or the other two that night. Sooner or later, everyone owned up to their pranks, but no one even mentioned this one at all. It was not until months later that I realized what I may have heard.

I was watching a documentary on TV about Bigfoot, and a crew hunting the evasive being had recorded what they thought were "mating calls" of the mysterious creature. When I heard the sounds of the recording come from the TV, the memories of that night all came back to me, I quickly sat up, eyes glued to the screen and the hairs on my neck stood up. It sounded almost identical. I couldn't believe what I was hearing.. again!

My next encounter was two years later (1998), again in August. It was late August, and there were no more "Cubs" for the remainder of the summer, so the designated "Cub Field" and its cabins were vacant. So, not having much to do, and no kids to watch, I decided to sleep in the "Cub Field" with the rest of the staff who had no children to take care of. The Cub Field is exactly that. It is a large clearing in the middle of dense forest, up yet another hill. It is probably 150 yards wide, and probably 200-250 yards long, with a row of small cabins on either side. While I layed in bed, in one of the cabins, I awoke a little after 12:00 am. I don't know why, but I was just suddenly awake. In the distance I heard what I thought was howling, but I wasn't exactly sure, I sounded kind of muffled. But, I was used to that sort of thing. I looked over at one of the other counselors' staying in my cabin that nigh t... he was fast asleep. Then, out of nowhere, I heard what I thought was someone running right by my cabin. The steps were heavy and quick. I shot out of bed, grabbing my flashlight, wondering who was running around at this hour, since everyone was supposed to be in bed hours ago. I swung the door of the cabin open and shone my flashlight in the field. I couldn't believe what I saw next.

About 40 feet, diagonally from me, I saw a large, hairy creature walking across the field, very swiftly. I stood there in shock, wondering what my eyes were seeing. This thing was absolutely enormous! At first I thought it might be a bear, but then I realized something -- it was walking upright, on two legs. It was very tall, bulky and had dark brown hair covering it's entire body.

Then as if noticing my flashlight, it stopped, turned and looked at me. I could see the yellow reflection of it's eyes and it's face. The face seemed to be almost half human, half ape-like having little hair on its face, but the skin was almost the same color as it's hair (a sort of lite brownish color). It stood there, looking at me, and I at it, for what seemed like an eternity, but was probably more like a few second.

I wanted to scream... I wanted to wake up the others... but I was frozen. I was caught up in the phenomena that I was seeing and couldn't move. That's when I noticed the smell. It was such a rancid odor, I had to plug my nose to save from puking. Then, the creature turned and began to continue it's swift movement across the field. And in a matter of seconds, it was across the field, walked between two cabins, and into the dense forest. It was when it walked between the two cabins that I realized how tall this being was.

I am 6' tall. Without standing on my tiptoes, I can reach approximately to the 7' 4" mark. This thing, as it walked between the two cabins, was taller than where the top of one of the doors is. The cabins are elevated off of the ground. From standing on the ground, I cannot touch the top of one of the doors. I am a couple of inches shy of it (I checked the next day). I would estimate that this thing was probably around 8' tall, or close to it. Again, I lay awake for the remainder of the night, my hatchet by my side. This was the scenario for many of the remaining nights of that summer before I went home. There were even sleepless nights afterwards, while at home. I didn't think I was afraid of anything, until that night.

I tried searching for tracks the next day, but to no avail. I couldn't find anything. I next day I asked one of the head counselors if there were any large animals in the general area such as bears, and he said, "no". Apparently, there were no bears for miles and miles. I never mentioned anything about what I saw that night. I didn't want anyone to think I was crazy. I thought I would just wait and see if anyone else mentioned something before I said anything. No one did.

My last encounter was the following (and my final) year, yet again in August. I don't know why I went back after all of the nightmares and sleepless nights from the previous summer. I guess I thought it was a once in a lifetime thing. This time, I had taken a rowboat out onto the lake with a lady friend whom I had met that summer (yes, there are female staff at scout camps!).

The main beach for the camp is in a small inlet of the lake (almost like a sort of small bay) before it opens up. As I was taking her on our romantic moonlight row, I heard what I thought was somebody whistling at me. I stopped rowing. She didn't hear it, but I know I did. I looked around at the surrounding shoreline, and didn't see anything. Next, I heard a splash. A little one, as if someone had thrown a rock into the water. I thought maybe another couple was somewhere along that shore. I grabbed my flashlight, and she grabbed hers. We scanned the shore from the safety of the boat to see if we could spot them. We were scanning in different sections. Then I saw them.... those eyes. The yellow reflection. I focused in on them, and they had an eerie resemblance to the ones I had seen the year before. "Do you see them?" I heard her ask. Without looking away, I said "no. You?". "No", she replied. "What is that?" referring to the eyes caught in my light. "A deer?" she asked. Yeah, probably, I said. But I knew better. Then, the eyes were gone. We then "agreed" that there was probably another couple out here, and we didn't want to "get busy" in front of other people, so I turned the boat around and went back to camp.

I have kept these secrets with me for 5+ years now. This is one thing I can honestly say I haven't told a single soul until now. I will never forget what I've seen and heard. Although there was no physical contact, I have been extremely traumatized from what I've experienced.

All this has been p ut in the back of my mind until now (probably because there was a show on the Discovery Channel about Sasquatch today) like I said before, it still makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand up, and my eyes water.

I am more than happy to share my story with you, but I wish to remain anonymous, simply for personal reasons. If you want, just refer to me as "J".

I wish to know more information on any sightings in Ontario. Am I the only one?
When was the last one? Where? etc.
Thank you for your time.

Email: "J"
Friday, March 26, 2004 12:19 AM