I was 16 at the time and visiting my relatives that live in Humptulips on the Bows Road [WA state] for the summer. I have always been a lite sleeper and that night was no different. I was awakened by the dog, a large German Sheppard, barking wildly outside. I cannot say why she did not wake anybody else up because it was obvious to me that something was wrong outside, not like a dog just barking at a rabbit or what-not.
All I can think of is I was visiting from the city and not use to the quiet of the country or hearing a dog bark at night. I got up and looked out the window to see if I could locate her. I remember looking at the alarm clock; it was a little after 3:00 am.
My Aunt and Uncle always had a large mercury light on a pole outside the front door as a kind of night light, porch light for the parking area, so it was easy to see. At first when I looked out the window I couldn’t see the dog as she was around the corner of the house barking wildly like I had never seen her bark before. Then I saw her come around front and she was making a half moon circle from the end of the house to the mercury light pole as if to set up a parameter of guard for the house. She was an average sized Sheppard but very protective.
I watched for a couple seconds more trying to see what she was so excited about, then it came into my line of vision. It was traveling from the corner of the house toward the mercury light. It was massive and made that dog look like a pup next to it; I recall she barely came to its knees. The dog kept following it barking and lunging threateningly but it did not look the least bit concerned. It was all one color, a brown silvery color, like a grulla horse. It did not have particularly long hair, maximum length 1½ inches. Its hair reminded me of what you would see on any summer time animal that had lost its winter coat; you know the animal is covered in hair but not long hair. It was so strange the way he swung his arms, it struck me as kind of silly looking. It did not have a hump on its head or back, it was just thick and big like a big man looks when he wears work coveralls over his normal clothes. He took 3 steps and was from the corner of the house to the tree line then the dog lunged at him one more time and he turned to look down at her. It was shocking because my window was no more than 50 feet from where he was and I could see his face plainly. He looked like a person but his face was still the same shade, perhaps slightly lighter than his body, head and neck hair. His eyes were looking down at the dog so I could not discern any color but his nose and lips were not monkey or ape like. They looked human. He was almost to the tree line and he looked back at the tree, lifted his left arm and moved the tree bow aside so he could step in under the tree into darkness.
I was in shock; I climbed back in bed and covered up to my neck in the blankets waiting for the dog to quit barking. It seemed like it took forever. I barely slept the rest of the night. The next morning at the crack of dawn I woke up my cousins and told them what I saw. It was the summer and the ground was very dry. So dry that there was a coating of dust in the gravel driveway in places that had once been mud puddles during the winter. We went outside and I was showing them where he went and I could not believe it, in one of those dust puddles was a foot print he had left just before he stepped under the tree. It was a perfect print of a large bare foot with five distinct toes. It was twice as big and wide as my size 7 ½ foot. That was the clincher, even if my mind wanted to explain away the huge figure as something other than a bigfoot I couldn’t now. Well everybody decided I had been telling them the truth. As I stood there by the footprint still in kind of a daze, I turned my head up to look at the tree bow and it was way way over my head. I am 5’4” and I remember raising my hands up as high as I could and jumping and I still could not touch the branch, it was at least 3 feet over my head. He had moved it aside because it was going to slap him in the face.
I never forgot that night and I never will. It still gives me chills when I recount the story to others. It was clear that the creature was just passing through and intended no trouble but it was still very creepy. Since that time I have spent a lot of time in the timber by my house in the same general area horseback riding and hiking, and have had many occasions to hear tree knocks, whistles, whoops and even vocalizations. In fact all of my family has heard those sounds. I would love to see one again, what a privilege it was.
With Kind Regards, Lisa
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