Date: February
King county, WA
Nearest town: Northbend
Nearest road: Alpental Ski Resort Road
Conditions: 25 degrees, clear, brite moon
Time: early morning
Location: Take interstate 90 to Snoqualmie pass. Take the alpental ski resort exit. Follow to the upper most parking lot. From the upper most parking lot follow a thin line of trees which borders a clearing upward until you hit the thick forest tree line. Note you are going up the side of the mountain opposite of the ski resort side.
Description of event: The ski resort was closed for the winter. A group of 4 friends and 2 vehicles had traveled up to the upper most parking lot of Alpental ski resort to enjoy a little inner tubing behind a vehicle, and a good snow ball fight. I had decided to go on a little hike. So I left the group in the parking lot and told them I would be right back. I hiked up the mountain directly opposite of the ski resort and in line with the outer edge of the upper most parking lot. I followed a thin line of trees which bordered a wide open area until I had hiked up far enough to hit the beginning of the thick forest. I then followed along the edge of the forest a few hundred feet until I could peer down at my group of friends. Below me was a wide open area and I stood near the center of that upper most parking lot. To my back side was the tree line bordering the clearing which is where the thick forest started. I stopped at this location for about 10 minutes and for the first few minutes yelled at the top of my lungs a few smart ass comments to my friends down below. After several minutes of this, the novelty of it had run out. My friends had a hard time hearing me as I was quite a ways up and the snow I’m sure muffled my voice. I stood there relaxing for a few minutes and was enjoying the view before hiking back down. Just before heading back down I heard a stick break directly behind me from what I estimated to be about 30 feet within the forest. I immediately turned around and was within 10 feet of the tree line where the forest started and tried peering into it. I could not see more than a few feet into the forest and heard no more noise. I then turned fully back around now facing my friends again with my back to the forest. At the exact instant that I had turned fully around I heard a deep yell lasting some 3 to 4 seconds. The yell never changed in pitch and was very deep and intense sounding. I then got an immediate adrenaline dump and ran at a reckless speed all the way down the clearing. I mentioned this to my friends and they laughed at the site of me being so startled. I wondered for some time what could have made that noise. The snow was deep; there was fresh snow on the ground as well. There were no other vehicles or people out as the resort was closed. There were no other tracks that I noticed on my upward hike. The weather was 25 degrees. It was 130 in the morning on a Saturday. The forest was thick and uninhabited, with no roads, and went on upward steeply until it crested a mountain and continued into the Cascades. Lastly, as loud as I was yelling I can’t think of any familiar animals that would not of been frightened off, also a level of intellect seemed to be involved in that when I faced whatever it was after hearing the stick break it remained silent, only when my back fully facing it did it let out its yell. I estimated that whatever it was the distance was no greater than 30 feet. I have not heard anything prior nor since even remotely close to the yell I heard that night.
Source: oregonbigfoot.com
record updated:2005-03-01 00:00:00