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Tonight's encounter comes to you from long ago.

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We're pulling this one out of the vault.

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Hi, Nance.

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This is a long and twisted and roundabout email.

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I just read it completely once I finished it,

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and I have to say it's a bit of a mess.

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So do what you want with it.

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I'm old,

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then I'm tired of trying to put things in order to make sense out of them.

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So here we go.

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I live in Clark, Colorado.

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This area is mountainous and also rural.

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From my back porch, I have a clear view of Grouse Mountain and Little Mountain.

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My mom and dad built this house, then they added on to it and made it more livable while I was still young.

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Now it's what you would call a "good and proper house."

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I grew up here and would not and have not wanted to live anywhere else.

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Over the years, I have seen and heard a fair share of weird things around this area.

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Most of it I took with a grain of salt.

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As many of those claims came from newcomers to the area

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who really weren't used to living away from cities and suburbs.

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And then some of them came from people who were regular locals, that's true.

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But they were just plain weird and some downright untrustworthy.

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But then again, I myself have witnessed some very strange things.

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So I now hesitate to call other people's stories untrue.

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There are a lot of different things that need to go into this email.

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I thought about it and I made some bullet points down on a paper notebook so I don't forget anything.

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But I have no idea how it's all actually going to come out once I start typing.

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So if this doesn't seem like a smooth story, I am real sorry.

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As for my house, situationally, what I have told you is about all that I will tell you.

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Other than there are cleared spaces and trees both around the property.

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But that can be said of most of the houses here.

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I still live here and there are very few houses in the area.

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So just telling you my view of the two mountains,

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that will narrow me down to maybe two dozen homes in the area.

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So understand, for my privacy, that's as far as I will go on descriptions.

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I grew up here and I bought out my siblings' shares when my parents passed on.

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So in essence, I have lived here the majority of my life.

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I also married late in life and I brought my beautiful bride to live here with me.

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We never were able to have children, but we were happy here until she passed

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after a short and furious battle with cancer.

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That was some decade ago, but I still carry on our tradition of early morning coffee on the back porch,

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watching the sun from the east spread across the mountain sides.

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We also love to watch the shadows fall in the evenings too.

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One evening, a few years back, we had sat outside on a very frosty evening,

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all bundled up in our jackets and our coffee in thick insulated mugs.

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Snow was forecasted overnight.

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The skies were going to be incredibly clear and bright

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and right then the smell of snow in the air was strong and sharp in my nose.

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We were pushing it we knew sitting out there with it being so cold.

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Normally, we would not sit out in such temperatures, but we figured this might be the last time

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that we can sit outside, possibly until spring.

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So we bundled up to enjoy the snow-centred air,

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and to see the crystal clear navy blue skies dotted with stars that were sure to come that evening.

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As a dusk fell that night, we took up our places out back and settled in.

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We were sitting and talking about a lot of nothing when my wife said,

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"Do you see it?"

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I asked her, "See what?"

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She pointed far across to the edge of our land and towards the base of Grouse Mountain.

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I looked and I saw a large and dark shape, something like a person.

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It was heading across an open area over to the far edge of the valley where the trees started

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thickening up onto the mountain side. It was threading its way in between trees

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and then started up the mountain side, and by luck it chose one of the few routes up that mountain

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side that we could see for a distance up the side. There were many areas of thinned out trees

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and some with no trees, so every now and then we could see its progress.

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And I knew some of the area that that shape was crossing. Much of it is difficult with unexpected

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rises and steep climbs. I noticed these did not slow the figure down. We saw the figure head up

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the side of Grouse Mountain until the trees were so thick and the shadows so deep we could no longer

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see them. When the shape disappeared my wife asked me, "Well, who do you reckon that was?"

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I told her I didn't know, and that while I knew a lot of fools in the area,

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I didn't know any of them to be so stupid as to take off up in the mountains like that was snow

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coming. And by like that I meant that the shape didn't seem to be carrying anything.

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The shape was smooth and fast, it wasn't bumpy like it was carrying a pack or a tent or anything.

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I will admit that my old eyes aren't what they weren'ts were, even back then,

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but they are and were still sharp enough to know exactly what I saw.

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My wife and I sat there a while longer watching, but it never did show itself again on that evening.

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We sat out there that night long enough to brew a second pot of coffee and watch our breath come out

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puffy white when we talked it had gotten so cold. And by then the stars were glittering in the night

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sky and we finally called it a night and went inside. I think I remember that night so well because

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it would be the last time we sat out there like that, but I didn't know it then.

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A couple days later though, I heard a neighbor tell a story about seeing a sask watch trying to get

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into their small greenhouse for what, who knows, there was no food or vegetables in there.

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He said that he fired a shot over its head and it ran off. He said this was late afternoon,

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approaching dusk and he saw it very clear. And the truth is if I hadn't seen what I saw a few nights

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before that I still couldn't identify, well still I would have snickered with the rest of them when

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he told that story. But I wasn't so quick to do so after seeing that shape go up the side of the mountain.

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And while I don't remember hearing a gunshot when he said this happened, others in the area said

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they did hear a gunshot that night. I hadn't told anyone what we had seen because while I didn't

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seem important until right then. When I heard his story I had a rethink on what we had seen.

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After hearing that story, I was doubly intrigued. I parked myself at the kitchen window that looked

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out toward the over area all that winter. I was waiting for it to reappear, but it never did.

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I thought many times about that night that we saw that shape. I thought about it all winter

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and it stayed sharp in my mind until spring came. That is you see early that spring before the last

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of the snows had melted away. My wife was diagnosed with stage three stomach cancer and by November

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she was gone. She couldn't do the chemotherapy you see. Every time she tried she got a lung embolism

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and the last one almost killed her when she did try. So she said no more chemotherapy and came home

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to rest and go in peace, which is what she did. My wife took her last breaths late that November,

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looking out at a bright blue sky behind a snow-covered grouse mountain from the large family room windows

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where her bed was set up. About an hour before she passed, I was holding her hand and her eyes were open.

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I felt her squeeze my hand and very quietly she said, "Do you see it?"

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I was startled. She hadn't spoken for two days, so I said, "What? See what? What do I see?"

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She never did answer me, but she never took her eyes off the mountain.

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I was so stunned. I was certain she was seeing something out there. I got my binoculars and looked out

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but I saw nothing but snow and trees. I sat down, took her hand again and asked her,

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"What should I see? What's out there?" But she had drifted off to some kind of deep sleep.

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"Do you see it?" Those were her last words to me. I get a shiver when I think about that. Those were

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the words she said to me also the night we saw that shape. "Do you see it?" After she passed,

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"Well, I can't tell you much about that hole next year." I existed. Yes, I did. And somehow the

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bills got paid and the groceries got bought and put away and I made my sandwiches and I ate and I kept

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breathing. But I don't remember much of it at all. What I do remember, though, is her asking me,

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"Do you see it?" I swear. There were many mornings I woke up with her voice ringing in my ears saying,

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"Do you see it? Do you see it?" It haunted me that I didn't know what she saw that last hour

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or if she saw anything at all. But I know she believed she did. But what was it?

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It wasn't until the second year after losing my wipe that I felt like I was now again with the living.

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I was now more than just some meat-covered skeleton that managed to breathe and eat and sleep.

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I started to feel like blood coursed through my veins again. And I now noticed the meadow flowers in

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the spring and I took pleasure in watching the sunrise and the sunset again. I don't think I'd

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seen them for two years. But in everything I did see, I would always tell my wife what I was seeing

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as if I was answering her eternal question. Do you see it? Yes, I did. I suddenly saw everything.

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I know I'm getting all sappy telling this. I am very sorry. I can't think about these times without

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feeling it all over again. And as weird as it is, all of this, losing her, her question of,

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"Do you see it constantly in my head?" All of that is somehow wrapped up with the Sasquatch.

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I guess because it was a whole time period. I am sorry. I don't know how to tell the one

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without the other. So let me get on with telling the rest of the story.

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So that second year after she was gone, I noticed many things as I came back to life as I had come to

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think of it. One thing that popped up was a new TV show that I just noticed called "Finding Bigfoot".

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I clicked past it on the remote and suddenly went back to it. The first couple of episodes were

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strange to me, but I was compelled to keep watching it. You see, I'd already had an idea of what we

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might have seen up there on Grouse Mountain. I'd begin to think about that shape we had seen.

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That's when I thought about my neighbor saying what he saw that night and shot at.

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I was finally doing some math and getting some possible answers. I wanted to know if that is what

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I had really seen. And if so, could I see it again? Could I get up close to one?

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Looking back, I think it may have been just another obsession that my mind was forming to help me cope

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with grief and loneliness. I had a lot of sudden obsessions at that time. New things to research,

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to read up on and fill up notebooks with lots of scribbles, tons of documentaries to watch.

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I suddenly wanted to understand things like aerodynamics, geology, botany, and other topics like

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all things paleontological and so many more things. And I somehow wound my way to cryptosuology,

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which of course became my biggest interest of all. So when I say I was obsessed, I mean I was

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obsessed with a great many things, and all of them started out as just a coping mechanism for grief.

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I began sitting out on my back porch with binoculars every evening and every morning.

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I had read and heard that Sasquatch are most active during those times in addition to the whole night.

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But months went by and I saw nothing all that spring and summer. I saw many other wonderful things

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that I probably would have missed if I had not been sitting out there. But I did not see what I was

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looking for. I would sit out there in the darkness sometimes, and I would talk to my wife as if she

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were still sitting in the other rocker. And to my mind she was there. I would talk to her about this

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creature that we had seen, and I would tell her all the things I had learned and read. Now you can

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go ahead and laugh if you want. But as an older man, with no children and no family nearby,

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well it was a good way to ease my loneliness. At night I would sit there in the eerie quiet darkness

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and listen for anything unusual out there. But I never heard anything that I was unable to identify.

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Now late that summer I felt strong enough and clear enough of mind to go exploring

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up Grouse Mountain. That seemed a good place to start since that was last where I saw it.

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I saw many things that I thought might have been bedding areas big enough for Sasquatch.

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I saw many broken invent trees. I saw many different formations of trees put together.

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I saw saplings braided together in a decorative way invent over.

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Those trees were too thick for a man's hand to do that. But maybe they were still young

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and pliable enough for something stronger, say such as a Sasquatch, to have done it.

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I observed mounds of scat that was from nothing identifiable. And every evening that I would come home

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late in the darkness I would hear my wife ask me. Did you see it?

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And every night I would shake my head wearily and I would say no honey. I didn't see it that day.

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But I would keep looking. Another thing that summer I happened to hear that someone said they were

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harassed and chased down Hans Peak Trail by what they said was a big foot.

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Now Hans Peak is barely three miles as the crow flies from where I live.

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So I soaked up all the fifth and sixth hand details that were told to me as much as I could.

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They were all sketchy and conflicting. But I tried to track down who told who what? To try to get

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back to the original person that was supposedly chased, but I had no luck. I went up Hans Peak myself

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several times. The Peak itself wasn't interesting. It's open and rocky. Great views, but probably not

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somewhere a Sasquatch would hang out. I was sure the incident occurred along the trail to the Peak.

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And that goes through forest. I was just about to give up on Hans Peak, but I went up again

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anyway. On my way up that trail on that one occasion, I suddenly had a skin crawling moment.

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I heard several tree falling sounds. It was a sunny day. There was no breeze or wind.

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We had not had any bad weather recently that could weaken trees.

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More interestingly, I would hear a tree fall. In seven to ten seconds later, I would hear splintering

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and another tree would fall. This happened four times in a row. I've lived in Colorado my whole life,

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but I have never known trees to fall like dominoes in such an orderly fashion.

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I was curious, and I wanted to see for myself what this could be. I had an idea, but I thought for

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sure it would turn out to be nothing. But I set off in the direction that I heard the trees falling

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anyway. I followed it as well as I could, but after a minute or two, I wasn't sure if I was still

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going the right way anymore. The trees weren't falling, so I was kind of guessing. I kept going

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anyway, telling myself that if I didn't find something soon, I'd turn back. I did not want to get lost

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on the side of that mountain. But I did find them, and I found a lot of them. I came out of thick forest

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into an area where the pines were more sparse. It wasn't a meadow exactly, but a more open spot

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on the mountain side. I stood in awe of what I was seeing. I counted twenty-seven broken pines there,

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almost in circles. Most were blonde wood fresh where the brakes were. I knew then this was not usual

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forest breakage. This was too controlled. All the brakes were roughly the same height on the trees,

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and all the trees pointed in the same direction, which gave it a circular appearance in rings.

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Like I said, I lived in Colorado most of my life. I knew this was deliberate.

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I spent several minutes there, looking around the area carefully, just to make sure there was

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no other explanation for what I was seeing. After a few minutes, I suddenly froze up inside.

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I had another skin crawling moment. I had the distinct feeling I was not alone.

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I didn't know if it was a dangerous animal that was coming near me, or a person. I had had this

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feeling before in the forest. Once it was a bear, another time a moose, and another time, a couple of

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dangerous individuals. But I digress. I knew in that moment I was not alone there. I could feel a

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very hard stare directed toward me. My face flushed hot, and I had a micro-sweat break out all over me.

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I had been kneeling by a broken tree, looking at the fresh brake. I slowly stood up,

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and did a slow circle looking around. All I saw were trees that had been broken. But as I made the

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circle, something stuck out as odd to me. There was one stump in the distance, way at the outer edge

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of the rings of broken trees. It looked as if it had been burned by fire years ago,

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but it had been worn smooth by the wind in the rain. The dark color was so very different from all

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the broken trees and stumps. They were covered with gray and brown pine bark, but not this stump.

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This dark-burned stump was about four feet tall and was roughly about a hundred feet away from me.

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I don't think that it would have stood out to me so easily, except for the dark color.

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I was curious about it, and I couldn't shake the feeling I wasn't alone.

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And I can't tell you why, but I started walking directly towards that dark stump. I wanted to have a

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look at it. I got as close as twenty feet from it, and the tree stump suddenly grew to about seven

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feet tall. It sprouted long legs and walked away very fast. It stood up just as I got close enough

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to discern that the detail I saw was fur, not burned tree bark, and that it seemed to have some long

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lines wrapping all around it. Those lines became arms when it stood up. When it stood up,

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its side was facing to me, then it turned to put its back to me and to walk away.

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I then had the unsettling realization that it had been squatting and was all wrapped around

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itself nice and tight, and it had one eye on me, probably. The whole time as I boldly approached it.

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I thank my lucky stars that it walked away from me and not toward me, because it would have been

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no contest if it came at me. Even at that time I was becoming an older man, and not the strong

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youth that I once had been. Shucks, even in my prime, I would have been no match for that sass watch,

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which I do believe was male, because I saw nothing to tell me otherwise.

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I can't give you a better description than anyone else of what it looked like. It was big,

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it was wide, it moved fast, and it was covered in dark fur, and its legs looked incredibly powerful

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and muscular. I saw it from the side, and then I saw its back side, which looked much as you would

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expect. It did have wide shoulders, and when it walked I did see the shoulder muscles moving.

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When I turned to finally leave the area after a few minutes because I was a little disoriented,

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I had to stop and think clearly, because I didn't want to go in the wrong direction and get myself

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lost on the mountain. I knew my mountains at home well, but I did not know this mountain by hand.

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I looked behind me several times as I left to make sure that it wasn't coming after me,

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but it was long gone, and I did not see it at all. All the way home I kept saying out loud,

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"Yes, yes, I saw it, I did see it, I saw it!" I said it as if my wife could finally hear me,

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and who knows, maybe she could. But I couldn't stop thinking about it, and I was determined to go

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back up to Hans Peak a few more times before the snow fell, but I did not make it back up there that

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year for a variety of reasons. But I did think about it all winter long. I was of a mind to call some

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of those groups or some other people about it, but I had seen how that had gone for some other people

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that I know in the area, so I wasn't going that route. Now in spring came, I went back up the trail to

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Hans Peak. I thought I knew where it was that I had gone off trail and found all the broken trees,

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but I spent several days trying to find those broken trees. I never did find them again.

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I tried on various trips to the area, and I never found them, but I'm certain I know where they

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should have been, and I have been stumped that I cannot find them again. I've asked if anyone I know

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has come across any in that area, but everyone says no. I have finally given up.

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It's been many years now, and I am now into my 70s. It's been a few more years since I've climbed

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the trail up to Hans Peak. Truth is, I'm getting too old to be doing that, especially on my own.

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I also have a pending knee replacement, so for the moment any such activities as that,

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well, they're not an option at all for me. I still keep a watch of a Grouse Mountain and on Little Mountain.

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I keep my ears peeled to listen for noises in the night, though I've never heard anything suspicious.

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I believe Sasquatch is still out there. I think they're roaming the nearby mountains, and maybe

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someday I will see one again. Maybe I'm just an old man, getting all sappy and connecting all kinds of

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things that probably really mean nothing. But ever since that day, whenever I wake up and I hear my

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wife ask me, "Do you see it?" Or if I hear her voice, and it comes to me in the darkness late at night

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when I'm sitting outside, and she asks me, "Did you see it?" I answer her without hesitation.

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Yes, I see it, and yes, I have seen it.

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Every day I miss her more than the day before. You can call me the lonely man at the foot of the mountain.

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