Clackamas County, Oregon
2004 Rhododendron

On July 4th 2004 my girlfriend decided to go launch some fireworks off of this cliff up Road 27 in Rhododendron, Oregon. It was about 10 or 11pm when we got to the top of the road where we parked our car. A trail leads from the parking spot through the woods about 150 yards to the cliff. Having been born and raised in the woods on Mt. Hood. I am very confident at going into the wilderness day or night and was definitely not expecting what I was about to experience.

We were prepared with a lighter, fireworks, and an LED lantern that only lit up an area about five feet around us. With my girlfriend on my arm and a lantern above my head we headed on down the trail. After walking down the trail for about a minute without hearing a thing suddenly five to ten feet beside us were three huge footsteps and then complete silence. My instant reaction was to growl at the animal thinking it would either fight or flee, but there was no sound after that. We stood there another minute listening and waiting but nothing happened after that. I felt no aggression towards us so we proceeded to the cliff where we set off our fireworks.

The whole time we were there to the time we fled back to the car we did not hear another sound. I am 20 years old and have spent a lot of time in the woods on Mt. Hood. I know what species live in the woods around my area and no deer, elk, bear, or cat could have ever made footstep sounds like that. Plus any animal in these hills would have fled being that close to human. If we had had a flashlight with a beam that night we would have been looking right at the thing. These animals are very intelligent and have things figured out alot better than we do. This encounter is completely for real and I hope it can help in your research. Us hearing and not being able to see what was right next to us has started a new mission in my life, find out what it was.

I feel bigfoot is an observer. They have observed white man come in and wipe out the only humans they related with (native Americans) they know that if they started murdering people such as us in the woods they would be hunted and their species would be wiped out.

Taylor Swann
Contact information on file July 2004