NABS Investigator Richard Hucklebridge
This report is from a gentleman who I will call MK who lives in Idaho and doesn’t want his name known or the exact location of his encounter known. It took place a while back in what he calls the Valley Area, after he just finished up with his military obligations; and while he was still in good physical shape. This gentleman tells a very convincing story, where I found him to be very up front and an honest gentleman who still has this Forest Person deeply ingrained on his mind every day.
What I found most interesting was when he, MK, was talking about something that I just knew couldn’t have happened that way; where you will come to that same conclusion while reading his report. One main fact is that this creature was in a little different configuration than what he was telling us here in his report. Mk was defiantly right about it being on all fours, but in this case it was in a little different position. Mainly because he had no knowledge of how these big guys can move at different times. Where they have three different main modes of travel, and I will attempt to explain them to you after you read his story about him chasing down this big guy and almost catching it and possibly he Mk was going to try and tackle it also! I only caught it after he told me his whole story; where it is kind of a mind blower, at least for me, after he finished telling me his story over the phone.
I have asked him to draw a sketch on how this big guy was looking when he and this big guy were moving down this logging road and into that forested meadow area; while he was attempting to chase this creature down. Then you will possibly understand just why and how he, MK, got so close to this creature.
MK’s report below:
My Hunting TripI’m going to tell you a story of one of my hunting trips. One day my uncle asked me if I wanted to go elk hunting. I never turned down a hunting trip. He told me that we were going to a new area. There were six in our hunting party. We split into two-man teams and all agreed to meet back at camp at 5:00 pm. My cousin and I decided to hunt up one of the ridges on the far side of the meadow. My uncle and another hunter went on the ridge one over from us.
We didn’t have any luck seeing any game. Two groups met up at the meadow and talked about hunting back to camp by going through another draw. As we were walking through the brush, we came across a log structure. At first I thought it was just a slash pile that loggers left behind after cutting trees down. My mind was focused on finding elk, NOT log piles.
My uncle said, “Look at these logs! They have not been cut by man.”
I said, “So?”
He replied, “No saw marks… no ax marks, and no hatchet marks.” Then my uncle said, “Where is the tree stumps for these logs?” We looked around. The closest stump was fifty yards away. This log structure stood about eight feet high and thirty feet around. The logs that were in the pile were green and were 6 to 8 inches around and ten to twenty feet long. There was a two-foot opening at one end. No one wanted to be brave and crawl in to look around.
My uncle said, “Do you smell that?” It was a musky smell. I thought to myself,what died?!? Shortly after the smell I thought I heard a woodpecker, and my uncle said, “That’s NOT a woodpecker.”
I said, “What?” My uncle replied, “That’s rocks being slapped together!”
An eerie feeling came over me and the rest of the hunters. It was like we were being watched. We decided that we would back out of the area and go to camp an easier way. When we got back to camp, we told the other hunters what we had stumbled across in the middle of nowhere. After we got a bite to eat we decided to play cards inside our sheepherder tent.
It must have been around 10:00 pm when my uncle said, “Hey! Quiet!”
We all calmed down to listen. We could not hear anything. It was very quiet… nothing moving and no breeze. So we went back to playing cards. I thought it was my uncle trying to play a trick or cheat at the card game. Five minutes went by and my uncle again said “Quiet!” This time he said “Look!” as he pointed to the lantern that was hanging from the center of the tent. It started to sway, and before we knew what was happening, the tent collapsed on everyone!
I remember that my uncle was the closest to the tent door. He opened it and started yelling for us to come out as fast as we could. It was dark, and we all were grabbing for flashlights and weapons. I grabbed a flashlight and a hunting knife. One by one we exited the tent. My uncle told us to all spread out. He said that we needed to find out what made the tent come down.
I stepped around to the back of the tent and listened. I heard something walking through the brush. It sounded like someone walking through dry leaves. Stepping around the tree that was in front of me, I hoped that I would see whatever it was that was making the noise. I flashed my light around and saw nothing. My cousin walked up behind me and placed his hand on my shoulder and asked in a soft voice, “What’s that in front of you?” I asked, “Where?” He quickly grabbed my arm with the hand that had been on my shoulder and said, “Don’t move your flashlight!” He reached around me with his flashlight and waved it at the area that I had my flashlight pointed at. He said, “Here!” When he did that, the creature took two steps sideways. My cousin said, “What is that?” I replied, “I don’t know!” My cousin exclaimed, “That’s not fur, its hair!”
What we were looking at appeared to stand seven to eight feet tall. It walked on two legs, and the weight looked to be between 600 to 800 pounds. It was a rust color. What came to my mind was a very large man in a gillie suit. This thing was thirty feet in front of me. This all took place in about fifteen seconds. As we stood talking about it, it dropped to all fours and started to run away from us like a gorilla. My cousin said, “Let’s get a better look at it!” So we started to chase it down an old abandoned logging road that led downhill towards the meadow. The moon was full that night with no wind at all. I felt like I was in a cross-country race, and the race was in my favor because it was going downhill. I used to be able to run the mile in 4:30. The closer I got to this thing, the thought in my mind was,what do I do now?!?
I got close enough to it as if it were a quarterback on a football field that I could have tackled or jumped on its back. I couldn’t see the face through all the hair. I did see the hand and fingers. It had a flat back. I could see the triceps and biceps as they flexed. I tried to hear if it was tiring from running, but it was not panting. My cousin could not keep up, and he started yelling, “STOP! – STOP!” I yelled back, “WHY?” He said, “STOP” again, so I broke off the chase. I kept my flashlight pointed in the direction Bigfoot was heading.
My cousin finally caught up with me and said, “Listen!”
I said, “What?”
He said, “Do you hear anything?” I told him no, and he said, “You should! We should hear something running. That means it’s just standing outside of the range of the flashlights!”
I asked him, “Why did you yell ‘Stop!’?
“Think about it!” he answered. “Wolves trick domestic dogs into the woods away from their home, where the rest of the pack will pounce!”
An eerie feeling came over me. I suggested that maybe we should head back to camp. Once back at camp everyone wanted to know what we had gone chasing after. No one else in camp saw it, but they did say they heard something big running. They also told us that the reason the tent came down was that two of the corner stakes on the outside of the tent were pulled up. These stakes were metal and were pounded into the ground with an ax!
Since that time I have been back to that area half a dozen times. I have seen fourteen-inch tracks. I’ve heard more rock-knocking, and one night I heard some good vocals from two different locations at the same time. I feel that I know how to get them all worked up if they are in the area. One of these times my son and I knew that the closest person to us was at least twenty miles away. It doesn’t leave a lot to your imagination on what’s making the noises. They are big and hairy. I’ve been chased out of the area twice now.
I still want to go back,but I will not go alone!! (Experienced first-hand)
NABS Investigators conclusions and hopefully the sketch of what he was chasing and its position it was moving in!
There is no way that one us humans could possible run and catch up with one of these big guys, and or possible even want to tackle it!!! But, MK had that opportunity, he thought, to do just that; where it was a good thing that he decided to stop instead. MK described to me what he was seeing while chasing this creature; where it couldn’t have been on all fours as he said in his report, because he told me that he was looking down on its back while running; which would put this creature on its belly and in a crawling mode sort of speak, and after you view his sketch you will see what I mean. I had no idea that they could move that quick while in this third mode of travel, that they have been seen doing before by a few other humans! I believe Thom Powell made mention of it in his book “The Locals”; where a deer hunter got to watch one retrieving a bag of apples in this lower mode of travel as in a belly crawl that was observed by this hunter.
MK possibly chased this big guy for about 400 yards down and into this forest meadow at a full out run; while holding a flash light in one hand and hunting knife in his other hand. Please observe how its hands, fingers and arms were configured in his sketch, and especially how he drew its foot position; as in it was in a hinged configuration while in this position. You have to figure that MK was going full out as he told me; which would possibly put him in the 20 to 25 mph range, and he was keeping up with this creature and was about to jump on it, or as he said tackle it, but decided at the last second to listen to his cousin and he just stop running. “Thank God, I hate to even think what might have happened to him if he had gone through with what he had in mind.”
One has to understand that these big guys do go down on all fours, which lets them move even faster than running on just two legs. Please be advised, that one of these big guys was clocked by an Oregon police officer running on two legs down highway 84 just after it swam the Columbia River at a little over 50 mph. Also, when on their normal all fours they look to be in a little different configuration; as in their arms are much straighter as are their legs; as in possibly looking something like a horse would possibly look like. One wouldn’t notice its back as much while they were in this normal four by mode, and or be able to catch up with it either.
MK also advised me why they definitely have that metatarsal break mid foot, and that was because he got to see it in operation while he was chasing after this. I found that to be of interest, because there are lots of folks out there who say this metatarsal break configuration isn’t a true condition of their foot. I believe that we have all learned a little something new here, because I know I have, especially on how fast they can move when they are in this lower belly crawl mode of travel that they use to get away from us with!!! Where they probably use it for hunting also! We are really fortunate to get to read about this encounter!
Richard Hucklebridge NABS Investigator:
MK’sSketch: