Sun Lakes State Park, Washington - Summer 2000

I was just visiting a friend of mine who lives in Stratford, Washington State, about 100 miles east of Seattle. The second night I was there visiting, we drove into Seattle to check out the local nightlife. At about 2 am we left and started driving home. As we neared his home — the area around Blue Lake — we stopped on Route 17 just south of Sun Lakes State Park to relieve ourselves. The time was around 4:30 am.

We pulled over to the side of the road and walked off into the bushes. Within moments, I heard off to my left a very loud noise as if something was coming towards us through the forest. I was rather nervous so I hurried back to the car. As I reached it my friend came running towards me. We sensed something following us at a distance, got in the car, shut and locked the doors, and waited quietly.

Out of the forest came the strangest thing I've every seen — it must have been a Bigfoot. I have spent some time living in Maine and the Northeast, so I have exposure to bears. I am most certain that this was NOT a bear. The creature seemed agitated. Perhaps when we walked off into the woods to relieve ourselves we startled it?

It approached the car and walked around it, looking at it and us. When it moved to the front of the car we could see it was about 6½ to 7 feet tall and covered in red/brown hair from head to toe. It stood upright, although with a hunch, and appeared to be bipedal.

It approached the car and came around the front. We quickly flicked on the car headlights and this is when we saw it best. We were so scared that we sounded the horn hoping that this would scare it off. At this point, the creature made a kind of chortling sound — similar to that African dog, the Basenji. Just then he reared back and pounded the hood of my friend's car. Perhaps it was agitated by the sound of the horn. It took off into the woods and we hit the road as fast as possible.

We returned three times over the next few nights, but never saw anything else. There were no tracks around the spot where we parked, only some crushed grass and underbrush where the creature had walked and where we had entered the woods. Hopefully this information is helpful, if I can be of more assistance please feel free to e-mail me. I am not willing to publicly discuss the sighting due to fear of ridicule and loss of status within my community. I will, however, give you any information that I can via e-mail. I am sorry if this is difficult, but for my sake it's necessary.

Note: The witness's name and occupation is withheld at his request. He is a professional man, practicing in a community where he prefers anonymity.