The year was 1972 and I was 12 years old. All I was interest in was the great outdoors.. fishing..hunting..hiking and all of the great things that go with them.My father was an avid outdoorsman and introduced me to all of these things at a very young age, needless to say I became quite an accomplished outdoors person myself. What im trying to say is, that by 12, I knew the animals that live in Canada very well.



That year (1972) my parents and I went on vacation for 5 weeks. We drove west across Canada starting in southern Ontario with a mission to fish and hunt across to British Columbia...

When we finally arrived at B.C we had been driving for many hours ( well my dad was doing the driving) and it was getting late. We were along way from any provincial parks.. or any civilization for that matter. My father decided to drive up this old fire road with our trailer to find somewhere to park and sleep for the night. Miles up this road we found a clearing to pull off into.. there was nothing but forest for miles and no humans to be found anywhere. I knew something was strange to begin with as my dad pulled out his 12 gauge and loaded it.. at the time I just figured he was being protective of us. After an hour or so we settled in for the evening, then my father actually wired the trailer door shut from the inside as to stop the door being opened from the outside? Ok now I was a little spooked! nothing scared my dad.. especially in the bush.. Now.. this is the topper.. he told me to get my shotgun and load it aswell.. So being his son I did what I was told, put the safety on and laid it on the bed beside me.. feeling safe I finally fell asleep, as did my parents..

I don't know what the time was but I was awakend by something.. I was sleeping in the front of the trailer where the table drops down into a bed, my folks were in the back. I could hear my parents whispering so I asked what was going on.. all I got was.... quiet.. listen! so I did..

I could hear something outside.. walking around.. whatever it was it was circling the trailer. I felt the trailer being pushed down at my end and then it rose back up.. (something had stepped on the trailer hitch) Now im scared clutching my gun.. as was my father. I gathered all my courage and finally looked out one of the windows in the front of the trailer.. pitch black! I could not see a thing! Then... I heard something at the door, and then the handle on the door started to move, not the way a person would do it, but like something that didn't know what to do with it would do.. sort of like pulling on it without turning it.. I let out a loud yell.. HEY! I said.. silence.. nothing.. then without warning.. WHACK! on the side of the trailer.. then nothing..

Needless to say we did not get anymore sleep that night.. daylight came and after making sure there were no bears outside, my dad unwired the door and with gun in hand went outside to check things out. I followed shortly after. We had never heard of bigfoot, sasquatch, and had never seen a bigfoot photo. What we found disturbed my father to the extreme. We found 2 footprints in the ground that measured 19 inches in length and guess what.. they were barefoot.. My dad started to get packed up in a hurry,and was pushing us to hurry, and in his words "get the hell out of there" YES.. I was scared!

Just before we were leaving I had to go and pee.. so I ran over to the woods edge and proceeded to do my business, my dad was yelling out for me to hurry up when I smelled this strange odor. It smelled like wet leaves, and a musty wet dog sort of a smell, hard to describe but it was awful. Then the hair on the back of my neck stood up, I could hear something in the forest walking around in front of me.. I could not see what it was but I could feel it watching me.. thats when my "flee or flight" mode set in. I knelt down motionless, and looked into the woods, frozen with fear I peered into the forest where I had heard the noise. All of a sudden what I thought were tree trunks started to walk away from me towards the deep woods..my father was calling me but I could not speak.. I was soo scared! I watched this creature walk away and disappear into the woods.. It was not a bear! I know bear.. Finally I ran back to the car and told my parents. We left the area immediately and reported what had happend to a conservation officer at the provincial park that we eventually stopped at that day.. as my memory serves.. they did not take us to seriously!

I know what I saw.. I did not imagine it.. we did see the footprints..!

That encounter shaped my life.. it left me with something I cannot let go of.. I know that bigfoot is real.