Just
after 10 pm on Monday June 12th, Peter and his fiancé were returning home from
Horizons Restaurant on Burnaby Mountain, riding Peter’s new Harley Davidson. The sun
had gone down but visibility was good in the evening twilight. Leaving the park area, they
turned right at the stop sign on Centennial Way to go down Curtis Street. Peter noticed
that the two cars behind him were both turning left to go up the hill towards Gaglardi
Way. Peter is in the habit of checking his mirrors at regular intervals and confirmed that
there were no cars behind them. Travelling down the hill, they both felt as if they were
being followed. Peter checked his mirrors again and determined that nobody was behind
them. He also confirmed that they did not have any traffic in front of them. At this point
Peter’s fiancé turned and glanced back to see a single relatively large slightly
yellowish white light high up, which she assumed was a vehicle far up the hill, coming
towards them. See point A on the map.
About this time Peter described hearing a racket. He
said it was definitely electrical with a high frequency buzzing, snapping, crackling sound
modulated by a low frequency stutter. Peter’s fiancé described it as sounding like
the loud buzzing of an overloaded electrical transformer. Peter at first thought there was
something wrong with his bike, but realized it was something else when the noise became
far louder than the bike. The noise was not steady but occurred in three waves. The second
wave was louder than the other two. Looking up, Peter saw the leading edge of an extremely
bright ball of bluish white light travelling with them, directly over their heads. Peter
estimated that the light was approximately the size of a car and ten feet above the sodium
vapour (orange) streetlights. Because Peter was driving a motorcycle down a hill at about
80 kph, he had to take his eyes off the object. Anna had looked up also, but because of
her extended visor, was not able to tilt her head far enough back to see the ball of light
above them. Peter geared down to a safe speed so that they could have a really good look,
but by that time both the light and sound were gone. This was approximately at point
B on the map.
Peter and Anna remember that the sound had come in three waves and had lasted about 30 to 40 seconds total. Peter’s view of the light, which "was like a small white sun", lasted for only about 3 seconds. After discussing the light Anna had seen behind them, they realized that it could not have been a car, as the angle she had seen it at would have placed it above the road. Also, no car had passed them coming down the hill. A few days later, they went over that stretch of the road several times, but could not find an obvious source for the light.
UFO*BC investigated a very similar case from September 12, 1999 on Fromme Mountain. Five companions had decided to party on Fromme Mountain (just east of Grouse Mountain). They parked and hiked up for 1-˝ hours to a cabin. They were sitting around with the ghetto Blaster playing when two of the members noticed flashes of light in amongst the trees. When they turned off the ghetto Blaster, a sound could be heard that resembled a high-pitched generator. One person, Marc, walked away from the group about 20 to 30 feet, until he was underneath the source of the sound, which seemed to be above the 80 foot pine trees. The noise, which had now changed to a distinct pulsing, was so intense that he had to put his hands over his ears. Another companion later said that the noise seemed to send a "wave" through his head. The pulsing sound continued for another 5 -10 seconds, then suddenly stopped. Throughout the experience, nothing was observed that might have caused the noise. The total event lasted about 45 seconds. The group remained a further hour before descending the mountain path and returning home.
Please read our report at: http://www.ufobc.ca/Reports/partypooper.htm or obtain our Fall 1999 issue and read the article called: "The PartyPooper".
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