Big and Hairy: Part 2

I saw bigfoot?

Something crossed the road up ahead of us on two legs. I gunned the motor and hit my high-beams to get a better look. Then it re-crossed the road, again on two legs, and disappeared into the dark forest.

I included the question mark in the title because, as you will see, I'm just not positive what I saw.

It happened in the summer of 1992. An old friend had accompanied two of my sons (ages two and six) and myself on a trip to Canada. As I have not asked his permission to tell his story, I will refer to my friend as Tom, which is not his real name. Tom, my sons, and I were staying in a very small town with a year-round population of around ten, about 70 miles northeast of Prince George, British Columbia.

On this particular night we were visiting a couple of friends whose home was approximately three miles, as the crow flies, through thick bush (as they call the forest in that part of Canada) from the nearest neighbor - maybe three-and-a-half or four miles by road. No one else lived on the road on which our friends lived. We were there for several hours, arriving before sunset and staying until well after midnight, laughing and having a pleasant visit. For the record I must state that there was no alcohol (or drugs either, for that matter) of any kind involved.

Tom, my sons, and I got into my little Isuzu pickup with the boys falling asleep in the extended cab while Tom and I were saying our goodbyes. I was driving as we pulled out of the long (about 200 yards) driveway and turned north on the road. We almost immediately topped a little rise. Way up ahead of us, the headlights barely illuminated the silhouette of something crossing the road on two legs, from right to left (east to west).

"Did you see that?" I asked.

"What the heck was it?" is a good paraphrase of Tom's response.

I gunned the motor and switched on the high-beams as we passed through a slight dip and topped the next rise. As the headlights once again reached the spot where we had seen the "something" cross the road, we saw the dark figure cross the road, again on two legs, but this time from left to right (west to east. As we reached the spot where we had seen the thing cross the road, I slowed to a crawl and scanned the trees for some sight of whatever it was. Seeing nothing, I hurried ahead to the intersection, which was the nearest place I felt safe in turning around. Then I hurriedly drove back to the approximate spot where we had seen "it." While we were riding in the truck, Tom and I were discussing what we thought we had seen, as well as what we thought we might have seen. We both were pretty positive that it was not a bear. But, what else could have crossed the road on two legs? We both admitted that we were thinking about Bigfoot, but neither was ready to accept that possibility.

Now, I realize that what I did next was not necessarily the smartest thing to do in grizzly country but the last thing I wanted to do was miss a chance to find out exactly what we had actually seen. I had heard enough stories about people who had seen something, yet been too scared to investigate while any evidence might be fresh. So, despite a cool mist that was falling, I asked Tom to drive behind me as I walked down the road looking for tracks or any other evidence. Neither of us had a good flashlight so I was hoping the headlights would give enough illumination to reveal anything that "it" might have left behind as it crossed and re-crossed the road. I did find a few moose tracks that went southward along the soft shoulder down the west side of the road but nothing at all that crossed the road going either direction. Of course, after turning around, we could no longer be certain exactly where our sighting had occurred but we did search about 1/8 mile of the hard-packed gravel road.

Finding absolutely nothing to encourage further searching, I finally gave up and Tom, my sons, and I went on to the house where we were staying. Early the next morning, we returned to the area and searched again, to no avail. This could, at least in part, be due to the fact that the gentle mist had continued throughout the night.

Next week I'll discuss what I concluded, after much research.