British Columbia 2006

I have a Sasquatch encounter that I would feel comfortable sharing with you. It happened years ago. It wasn’t an aggressive creature so although it terrified us, it ended without incident but with life changing memories. 

I first became aware of Sasquatch after watching “Legend of Boggy Creek” at the theatre when it came out in the 70’s. After that it didn’t pop into my mind much at all. I kind of filed it away as just a scary creature on a movie. I had seen the Patterson Gimlin film but didn’t pay much attention to it. 

This encounter happened about 2005 or 06 on Vancouver Island. 

I have always been an avid outdoor guy, not a hunter, just loved the backcountry. I spent any possible free time in the forest. I lived on Vancouver Island back then and loved it. Not only did we live on the edge of the wilderness but in less than an half an hour we could be far away from civilization. It’s a shame it’s no longer like that. 

I had been divorced a couple of years and on the weekends that I had my kids, two early teen girls and one over active 10 year old son, we were usually off into the forest exploring. 

On this particular weekend it was just my son. My girls had found boys much more interesting than the backcountry and decided to stay with their mom and go to a school dance. 

I came home from work on Friday night and as per usual my son had our little pathfinder packed and ready to go. 

Our plans were to head north on the highway until we found a forest road we hadn’t been on and off we’d go. 

On this Friday night we managed to get a little north of Campbell River before cutting into the islands interior. We found a cool place to camp beside a nice little stream. It was a beautiful night, not a soul could be heard. Nothing jut the peaceful sounds of the forest and the trickling stream.

The next morning we were off for a day of exploring, no particular destination. Just heading down the island exploring roads old ghost towns and pathways we hadn’t gone on before. By evening we found ourselves down by Lake Cowichan. We found a small path that we could just squeeze the little pathfinder through and we’re surprised to find a quiet little clearing by the lake. We set up camp, had some hot dogs and decided to go for a bit of a wander before crashing. 

I’m not sure what time it was but the sun was setting, it looked absolutely amazing as it kissed the top of the trees on the other side of the lake. We decided to head back up the trail we came in on a couple hundred feet or so to a break in the bush where my son was sure there was another trail. 

I was a little on edge since we set up camp, let’s just say my spider senses were tingling. I put it off to possibly a bear or cougar in the area and grabbed my knife and bear spray before we left. Until the last couple of years I had never owned a gun or even fired one. I got my licence and picked up my first rifle a couple years back because I was fed up with the coyotes terrorizing my turkeys. 

We wandered back up the trail with my son talking 100 mph like he always did on these little adventures. We came to the little off trail and headed up it. After about 50 feet the dense brush opened up to a stand of fir trees that headed back down to the lake. All the trees were very mature, trunks all more than 2’ across, towering at least 75’ with very few lower branches obstructing our view of the lake. It was breathtaking. I was walking behind my son enjoying the view of the setting sun reflecting off the water when I almost tripped over him. He had stopped in his tracks and was dead quiet. I looked down at him and he was staring off towards the lake. He then whispered “what is that”. I followed his gaze down by the water about 100 feet away. There was a silhouette of something about 4’ wide and about six feet high. It was clearly an animal but didn’t look like anything I’d seen before. Because of the twilight and being in the forest I couldn’t make out exactly what it was. I will tell you though, even though it was just a silhouette it made my blood run cold. Through all my years of exploring the forests, coming in contact with cougars, bears, elk and so on I had never come across anything that sent this feeling of deep fear through me. It went through my entire body and I began to tremble I almost felt like I was going to piss myself. 

I don’t know why I said what I did but I leaned over and whispered to my son “ that’s just a stump, let’s get back to camp”. I wanted to back up but I couldn’t move my legs. After a few seconds he responded “that’s no stump”. Then the thing then began to stand up. We were frozen in place. We thought it was huge before but when it stood up I couldn’t believe what I was looking at. This thing was easily 9’ tall and as wide as a sheet of plywood. It was clearly hair covered. Had a barrel chest and long arms. It turned to look at us. It looked at us for what was probably only a few seconds but felt like hours. I couldn’t move. It blew some air out from between its lips making a sort of snorting sound. It then turned and walked almost casually off into the denser forest never looking back. My son and I stood speechless for several minutes when he finally said “holy shit” (first time I ever heard him swear)”That was a Sasquatch.”

After what seemed like an eternity we regained our composure and we headed back to camp. I suggested we pack and leave but my son would have nothing to do with that so we made concession and made our bed in the back of the Pathfinder. At the time I had not heard of any bad encounters, it clearly knew we were there but had done nothing aggressive and at the time I felt we had nothing to fear but my own imagination. 

My son slept like a log but I spent a sleepless night listening for any strange sound. We did not see it again and headed back to town (Langford) the next morning. 

I mentioned it to a couple of neighbours when we got back and got laughed at and ridiculed for being drunk ( I rarely drink, especially when watching my kids in the bush.) I was very angry and my son was quite embarrassed. It was then that my son and I agreed to never talk about the encounter with anyone. We did not want to face the ridicule. My son is still somewhat private about the encounter but I have reached an age where I don’t care what people say. 

After the encounter I started doing research whenever I could to get a better understanding of what we had seen. After some time I had to agree with my son that we had in fact seen a Sasquatch. 

The encounter and personal investigations completely changed the way I think. I now listen to anyone’s details about strange occurrences and encounters of any kind openly and supportively. I may not always believe them but, clearly something has happened in the lives of each of them. It’s amazing over time though how often people’s stories, even the ones I wasn’t sure of, have little links to one and other and some very similar descriptions. 

Craig Cunning