Okanogan National Forest,Washington - 1980 Encounter

     I interviewed a man, whom I’ll call Michael, from West Virginia, who had an encounter with a Sasquatch, while serving in the military. This happened in the summer of 1980, while teaching survival in the Okanogan National Forest of Washington State. I’m keeping his name and military rank hidden, too protect his identity. He told me that he never did believe in the existence of a Sasquatch or any type of an unknown primate and thought it was rather shallow minded of people to believe in such things. Something happened to him in Washington State, back in 1980 that totally changed his way of thinking. This is his story as he related it too me.

     Michael has been in the U.S. military for over 40 years, enlisting through the R.O.T.C. program. While in the military, he wanted to become a survival instructor and spent years learning the different techniques. After becoming a certified instructor, he would take students out into different types of country, for testing. He has spent many times in the Okanogan of Washington State with individual students and also by himself. On one particular survival outing in the Okanogan National Forest with two students, while sitting around a small camp fire talking about survival techniques, a big dark colored biped walked right into their camp. This creature paused for a few seconds, then turned around and walked away. He described it to me as being at least ten feet tall, looking somewhat like a hairy ape and very big looking and wide. This encounter took place late at night, with the only light coming from the small fire, so they both didn’t get a very good look at it. He told me that they couldn't get to sleep that night and pretty much stayed up till morning. There were very large, wide and approximately 20 plus   inch long barefoot human type tracks with five toes. He estimated the size by comparing the tracks to his own foot. The stride that this big animal had was much longer than what an average sized human would be capable of. Where they were camped, wasn't too far from the Canadian border and the tracks come from that direction and then preceded back towards Canada. He told me that he never did believe in a Sasquatch, but know he does. 

Ron Johnson
Kevin Allridge