My husband's family has a cabin in northern Michigan in Oscoda County. His
grandpa bought 20 acres of land for 2000 dollars, 100$ an acre, back in
1968. My husband has spent most of his life hunting and exploring the woods
up there. I have been going up there for the past 3 years. We live
downstate and love to get away from everything and visit there as often as
work and school allows. My husband's family is from Madison Heights, which
is right next to Detroit, but I grew up in the small town of Ortonville in
the northern part of Oakland County.
Thanks to my dad I am an active hunter but I will say that the best part of
hunting is being in nature and observing wildlife. My husband hunts much more than I. We also share a
love for riding ATV's. We can do all of that up north and are still looking
for a good deal to buy and eventually move north. There are not a lot of
job opportunities up there so it may be a few more years before that
happens. So in meantime we will have to settle for visiting as much as we can.
We went up with some friends last 4th of July weekend last year. We
reserved some canoes for a 3 or 4-hour canoe trip from Hinchman Acres in
Mio. We also had some ATV's for riding that weekend. At the time I posted
my sighting on the BFRO site, I did not have the recall that I have now
after reflecting a very lot on everything.
Well, what happened is that my friend and I went to town to get breakfast
things and so she could call her boyfriend to arrange meeting him later that
afternoon since he was going to go canoeing with us on Sunday. He was still
downstate. Well I decided we should go to Bullgap (where we were going that
afternoon to ride) just to see if there were going to be a lot of people
there. It was around 9:00 AM. We drove there, checked out the scene and
headed back towards town.
We were talking as we drove down the highway and just as I started rounding
a long curve I saw a perfect view of this Bigfoot as it stepped into the
tree line after crossing the road. I only saw it for it's last step but it
was only like 30 yards away so I could see it perfect.
I immediately interrupted my friend and said, "Did you see that?" She said,
"What, did you see a deer?" I said, "No it was big and black." She said it
was probably a bear so I knew she didn't see it. It looked nothing like a
bear. I slowed down where it entered woods and told her to look and see if
she saw anything. I looked also and neither of us saw anything. She was
kind of laughing at me because I was acting a bit freaked out. I did not
state that it was a Bigfoot because it sounded stupid even to me. That was
the last thing I expected to see! This is my description: it was huge, and
solid black from head to foot. I saw the whole backside of it but it never
looked my way so I didn't see the face. I saw the head and then the
shoulders (the shoulders were very broad, like maybe 4 or 5 ft. across) The
torso went down and I saw the rounded buttocks and then long legs. It was
about 10 to 12 ft tall. Estimated by the trees it went into but I still
need to go back and get a better look to get a better estimate. It looked
better than what you would imagine a Bigfoot to look like. When I compare it
to Patterson film, I'd say it was very similar but the one I saw was a male
and Patterson's was a female. I say this because the one I saw was built
just like a man except a lot bigger. The shoulders and upper body were
broader like men. The muscles bulged and the outline was very firm.
As I said on BFRO sighting, I didn't see details of hairs but I assumed it
was long because it laid flat on head and body and didn't distort outline.
It was totally surrounded by green grass and green tree line so its shape
was very discernable.
I think what made it seem more unreal was the fact that when I saw it my
mind was mentally preparing to get a better look and then it disappeared.
Although I don't recall the distance it was from tree line, I feel that it
had a good 5 or 6 feet to go. At that time I didn't know about their long
stride. Now this is strange but after that I didn't think about it at all.
I think my mind didn't have any information to support this so it just
dismissed it. It was still very hard for me to believe.
Later, in the beginning of January, I was thinking of things to learn about
on web and I thought of Bigfoot. While reading different reports about
bigfoot I kept seeing that picture in my mind and I couldn't recall seeing
such a perfect view of bigfoot on any TV shows and then I recalled where I
had actually seen it. It took me weeks to recall the details. I thought
maybe I dreamed it but the more I reflected, the more things I remembered.
Like when we went on our canoe trip that weekend. This is gonna sound
unbelievable and quite a rare coincidence but from the series of events that
took place it looks as if we may have encountered the same Bigfoot that I
saw on Saturday. I will include a map of where Bigfoot entered woods and
where we heard scream. Au Sable runs through same woods and the two points
are within a mile of each other. There were 5 adults and 6 kids. It was the
day after my sighting (which had already been dismissed from my mind at that
time) and we were a couple hours into our canoe trip down the Au Sable
River. It was time for a bathroom break so we started looking for a place
to pull off river. There are a lot of different pull offs all down the
riverbank. We found one that was kind of grown up and you could tell a lot
of people didn't use that one but that made it more interesting.
We pulled our canoes in and had to climb a steep runoff. There was a
clearing and a very old fire pit that hadn't been used in quite some time.
There was also a footpath off to the right that went into thick woods. I
decided to use the trail for my call to mother nature. I walked down it and
it was a lot darker than the sunny day due to it being so thick. I walked
out of sight from everyone and still felt "watched" so I kept going down
trail to about 30 ft or so from clearing where everyone was. At one point I
saw people going down river through a small hole in foliage between the
footpath and the river. I heard a rustle in foliage off to my left and
looked but did not see anything. I still didn't feel comfortable going pee
so even though I had to go extremely bad (I even had to cross my legs for a
second to hold it better) I didn't go there. I walked back to the group and
to the other side where there was a small pit in the ground. I was in plain
view of the group and people going down river but the ground dipped down so
when standing in center of dip no one could see me from waste down. After I
was done I joined group in conversation. I should also note that there was a
road right next to clearing that we couldn't see because of dense woods. One
guy discovered it while relieving himself. A car slowly drove by him only a
couple of feet away. Anyway, we were talking and my girlfriend came up the
riverbank and said she had to go pee so I told her about the footpath that
was well hidden from prying eyes. She proceeded to venture down it when all
of a sudden we heard this awful scream/growl. We in the group all said,
"What the hell was that?" and I said it sounded awful close. The guys said
it could be anywhere because sound carries on river. I said it sounded like
it was right next to us in the woods. We then asked where xxxxx was and
she came out of that footpath still doing her pants up. I asked her if she
heard the noise and she said, "Duh, it sounded like it was right next to
me!" She didn't get a chance to pee and said she would hold it. Now, when I
look back on that instance, I think it pretty funny. I picture her pulling
her pants down about to pee close to a Bigfoot and it screaming at her so
she wouldn't. We stood and talked about the noise. I was half expecting
something to jump out of woods but I felt safe with 3 men, my girlfriend and
kids playing in river at bottom of the runoff. We all looked to my husband
for an answer since he has been familiar with area since childhood and he
said it was probably a cat. A few of us said it didn't sound like no cat
we've ever heard. In defense of my husband I must say that now he says it
didn't sound like any cat either but at the time he felt he had to have some
answer since everyone was looking at him. We concluded that it could have
been a mountain lion that is not indigenous to the area but was said to have
recently ripped the face of a horse off. It was very loud and sounded high
pitched like the squawk of a big parrot and then it ended with what sounded
like a bobcat growl. It lasted about 3 to 5 seconds. Well we continued to
stand around and talk since we didn't feel any kind of threat. One of the
girls came and told me she had to pee so I once again
directed her to the trail. It was the perfectly secluded spot to go and it
never even crossed my mind that there was a Bigfoot in there. I would never
have sent anyone there if I even had the slightest clue. I was very ignorant
of Bigfeet at the time. Well anyway, she went down the trail while I stood
at the trailhead and she promptly came back and said she didn't want to go
there and that she heard something. I haven't talked to her yet so I'm not
positive, but I think she said she heard something growl. I told her it was
kind of spooky in there and I then took her to the same spot I ended up
going, in plain sight of everyone (the upper half anyway). Well, it didn't
end there. A little later my 12 yr. old nephew had to go and believe it or
not, I told him about the trail also. He turned towards it and took a couple
steps and then said he would hold it. It ended up no one used that perfect
spot of seclusion. We went back to waters edge and I was playing in water, I
would pick up my feet and let the current take me down the river a little
and then put my feet back on ground. The kids and me were enjoying it but
when looking back I did feel watched even then. At one point the current
took me towards the woods by the footpath and I had an incredible urge to
get away from them. I never put much stock in gut feelings but after that
and several other incidents I will listen to them from now on. I picture
that Bigfoot sitting in those woods watching the many 4th of July canoers go
down the river. And what are the chances of us pulling off in that very
spot!
Well, Bobbie, I have a lot more incidents but since it is lengthy, I will
leave it up to you if you want me to send you more. Some are interesting,
like rock throwing, a tent getting ripped apart, and while hunting I was
followed after hearing a strange knocking. We also saw footprints at one
location. I do not wish to have all that posted but I will share it in
confidence with you if you are interested. Nothing against any
investigators but I don't want any around as I am planning different tactics
than is common. I would not be opposed to one or two though. I am made fun
of by family members I told and I don't wish to go extremely public with my
experiences. I understand how hard it is for most people to believe and I
don't need anymore "ribbing". I will say that I believe the creatures are
more human than people think and that we are seriously underestimating their
intelligence and superb physical abilities. I will send you more info if
wanted but it will be lengthy since it is hard to convey all the senses that
surround these occurrences in a few words. Thanks for your time.
