Sicamous

Date: October, 13/ 2004

Occurrence:

friend Jeff and i decided to take his 24 foot bay liner boat on a last cruise of

the season trip on the Shushwap lakes in BC while we both had some time off.

after boating for most of the day we decided to pull into Cinnemousun Narrows

Provincial park, the are was completely deserted as it was off season, the park

is almost impossible to reach by land because of its isolation. We docked the

boat and set up camp and began gathering firewood, but because it was damp this

proved to be very difficult so i resorted to chopping off bark from the numerous

dead falls with my very dull hatchet, after several hours of knocking on the

dead wood i succeeded in gathering enough wood for a half decent fire, we

prepared supper as darkness fell and were enjoying the numerous stars. we

decided to pack up the dishes and food and haul them down to the boat as we were

concerned about bears as we dropped the first load off in the boat we heard an

extremely loud howl/vocalization about 100 feet away in the dense forest

directed at us. it was deep prolonged and somewhat menacing. here is our

conversation verbatim while we were cowering in the boat;

Jeff: what the f*ck was that???

Erich: Jesus I don't know...I'm not sure

Jeff: f*ck, you're the animal guy

Erich: well it's not an Elk moose cougar wolf coyote or bear, I’ve never heard

anything like that, ever! maybe it's an owl???

(second vocalization seemingly closer)

Jeff: that's a pretty f*cking big owl!!!

Erich: err, um I don't know what it is but it does sound pretty big

Jeff: yeah well owls don't sound like that

Erich :yeah er, I know... what are we going to do about the stuff at the

campsite? we can't leave it there do you want to try to go back?

Jeff: yeah but gimmie the flashlight and the hatchet.

We slowly and cautiously went back to the campsite, the whole time keeping our

eyes on the area where the sound came from, the whole time i felt like i was

being watched and the whole time the hair on the back of my neck was standing

up.

when we got to the campsite our Coleman lamp was still illuminating the area

well but we cranked it up all the way and gathered the stuff Jeff immediately

said, "what's that smell?" i was still a little stuffed up from the campfire so

(i didn't immediately smell anything until i cleared my nose) Jeff said "it

stinks like wet animal or something its really strong!" as my nose cleared sure

enough there was a stench of wet dog or animal smell hanging in the air mixed

maybe with a fecal matter type smell it was very odd and quite pungent. By this

time i no longer felt safe and since it was to dark to move the boat we decided

the only thing that we could do was to try to scare what ever it was away, i

took out an array of fireworks starting with an air bomb and detonated it, what

ever it was crashed away into the night. although all night I kept waking up at

very sound and did not enjoy a fitful sleep at all.

after the experience i went

to the BFRO site and listened to the calls there it sounded very much like two

of the calls on that site. After listening to the calls I became convinced that

we had been visited by a Sasquatch.

I am an experienced naturalist I have grown up studying nature and have spent

countless hours outdoors photographing wildlife, hiking and trekking, my brother

is a DR of Ornithology and we spent years banding birds and doing conservation

work, in all these years I have never heard vocalizations like the ones i heard

that night, they were deep and guttural, it was so clear i could even hear the

vocal cords creating the sound in the chest... it was odd, very ape or monkey

like in the way that the sounds were created and i sincerely believe that in

order to create the sound a huge lung capacity would be needed to create and

sustain the volume that was generated.

In retrospect I am convinced that my chopping with the hatchet may have

attracted it to the area as i did it for several hours and it resonated

throughout the forest. the next day we checked the area where the sound seemed

to emulate from and found the approx. position on a trail, where a huge area of

moss had been recently dug up and disturbed, no tracks or droppings were found

but we were certain that that spot is where the animal had been possibly

feeding. Afterwards I consulted another friend of mine who grew up in Sicamous

and he immediately told me that it had to be a Sasquatch as he had found numerous

tracks and had heard several eyewitness accounts while growing up in the area.

Witnesses: Erich Lang (WCSRO Senior Member) & J. Stuart.

WCSRO, 2006.