In mid-October 1996, I made a hunting trip for
mule deer bucks into the Pasayten Valley. The
Pasayten River Valley is located west of the
town of Princeton off of the Hope-Princeton
Highway just east of the border of Manning
Park, then some 10 to 12 miles in the bush
very close to the border of the state of
Washington. I towed a 16-foot trailer into the
area with my truck and decided to make camp at
a favorite spot of mine in a clearing along
Peeve Creek.
Being
truly tired from both the three-hour drive
from home and the stress from a week's work, I
made a quick dinner, washed it down with some
cool mountain water from the creek, and then
hit the sack early for some much needed rest.
About
midnight I awoke, got out of bed, and then
quickly stepped outside into the cold to
answer the call of nature. Upon opening the
trailer door, I was surprised to see snow
quietly falling with a light skiff already
accumulated on the ground. After attending to
the business at hand, I quickly climbed back
into my warm bed with high hopes that the snow
outside would be around to offer decent
tracking conditions come morning.
A
crisp, clear dawn found me slowly hiking in
towards Trapper Lake, high in the hills above
and east of Peevee Creek. I hadn't gone too
far when suddenly I cut across a fresh trail
of huge, five-toed, barefoot, man-like tracks
made in the inch or so of freshly fallen snow.
I couldn't believe what I was seeing, and upon
careful examination these man-like tracks did
not appear to have any type of claw or nail
marks ahead of the toes like that of a grizzly
or black bear would. These man-like tracks
were an estimated 16 to 17 inches long by 7 to
8 inches wide with a stride of about four to
five feet - much further than I could possibly
step even stretching my legs out.
I
followed this reasonably straight line of
giant man-like tracks for several hundred
yards until they entered a thicket of young
evergreens and blow-downs. These barefoot
tracks seemed strange in that they did not
wander about like the tracks of most wild
animals would and showed little or no straddle
from an imaginary line through their center.
Thinking back, it almost seemed like the maker
of those tracks was heading for a place with a
purpose in mind.
After
looking into the thicket and envisioning all
sorts of strange scenarios, I decided I didn't
want to meet the maker of those tracks and
rapidly hightailed it out of that country for
the season. I did, however, return to the same
area the following September with a friend and
we managed to harvest two beautiful mule deer
bucks. Although I looked hard, I found no
further tracks or possible Sasquatch sign.
Over
my last 40 or so years of hunting big-game in
the wilds of British Columbia, I have, at
times, been far too close to big bears. I have
smelled, seen and tracked both grizzly and
black bears. The tracks I found in the
Pasayten River Valley during October of 1996
"were not" the tracks of a bear or any other
animal that I am familiar with.
© Ken Kristian
West
Coast Sasquatch Research
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