BFRO Home | Reports Database | New Report Additions | FAQs | ||||||||
Media Articles | Hypotheses & Projects | About the BFRO |
YEAR: 2006
SEASON: Winter
MONTH: January
DATE: 02
PROVINCE: British Columbia
COUNTRY: Canada
LOCATION DETAILS: South Okanagan Valley
NEAREST TOWN: 1st = Cawston , 2nd = Keremeos
NEAREST ROAD: 1st = nighthawk 2nd = Ahnola River Rd
OBSERVED: Both incidences happened in 2005, and in the same general area.
The first encounter happened last summer. My family and I were on another family outing in the Cawston, B.C. area. We had travelled to this spot once before, and thought we would go for a walk again in the same area. After we had finished our walk, we were coming back to the truck, and I noticed four black objects standing in the Similkameen River. Two were standing and it looked as though the other two were bent down drinking. I said "What is that?!", and the rest of my family and I watched these things move around in the water. The only thing we could say for sure due to the distance (roughly 300 meters) was that they were all completely black, and they looked huge. It's funny, I've often wondered how people guess that something is so large when it's far away, but trust me, it's really obvious. We wanted to get a better look, so we hopped in the truck to try to drive around to get a better view. We couldn't find a spot , so we turned around and returned to the original location. They were gone. We were excited, but we had nothing concrete, so we just kind of chalked it up as something we MIGHT have seen.
The next incident happened last monday (Jan.02/06). We went for another family drive, again looking to do a little hiking. We passed through Keremeos and turned off to go up the Ashnola toward a camp that is there with a provincial park strewn with trails. we pulled off not very far from the main road, and the minute we got out of the truck, we heard screaming coming from the forest. I have shown my son screams that are reported to be sasquatch on the internet, and right away, said "That's like the sounds on the internet!" I totally agreed. We stood there frozen as we listened to this freaky sound. I wanted to investigate, but my wife would have none of it, not with two small kids. So the got back in the truck ,and I headed off down the trail to try to get closer to whatever it was. Just as I start, suddenly, I hear "BEEP,BEEP,BEEP....." [car horn] my wife either was freaked out and did it on purpose or she really did do it by accident, but either way, the howling stopped immediately.
I went back to the truck, and told everyone it was a coyote. My wife bought it, but my son didn't. He said "That didn't sound like a coyote." So we went to leave, but I thought we could go down the road in my truck as I hadn't been there before, and wanted to see where it went. We had gone about a quarter mile, when I could see footprints in the snow in the middle of the road. I stopped to check them out. I could'nt believe what I was looking at. They had to be twenty inches long and roughly 8-10 inches wide. The first thing I looked for was stride length, and it was large. The tracks were old, but totally convincing when we had just experienced such a strange noise coming from the forest.
OTHER WITNESSES: yes, my family (3 others)
OTHER STORIES: No.
TIME AND CONDITIONS: about noon, the weather was mild, no wind, overcast
ENVIRONMENT: pine forest, both occurances happened close to or in water
Follow-up investigation report by BFRO Investigator Blaine McMillan :
The witness has stated that he and his family have had two seperate incidents.
The first was a visual sighting on the lower portion of the Similkameen River, in the south Okanagan Valley and that he and his family watched the subject group for about five minutes. He described to me what appeared to be a group of four sasquatch.
All four individuals were black in colour and they were standing in the Similkameen River. Two of the creatures were bent over and appeared to be drinking from the river and the other two were standing nearby in the river. The witness observed that the two sasquatch who appeared to be drinking did not use their hands to scoop water rather they simply slurped water from the surface of the river. The witness believes that the water depth was about 3 feet deep and the water came half way up their thighs.
The witness informed me that the largest of the group shuffled around in the water but it did not appear that it was maintaining a "lookout" position.
The witness did not notice any objects being carried by the creatures nor could he identify any facial features as they were near 400 yards away.
The second incident took place about 50 miles away, north east near the Ashnola River.
The witness and his family heard some vocalizations and saw some possible tracks in the snow. The vocalizations were stated to be low in tone and although the witness did not feel as if he was being watched he believes that whatever was making the sounds could see him. He stated that the vocalizations were very similar to the sounds found on the BFRO website.
About BFRO Investigator Blaine McMillan :
- Retired Canadian Military (Reg Force) Safety Systems / Aviation technician with experience fighters and various SAR platforms. Author of Wood Knocks and Tossed Rocks:Searching for Sasquatch with the BFRO
- Married with two young sons. An avid camper, hunter and fisherman.
- Holds a BA in Criminology from the University of Manitoba, courses in Alternate Dispute Resolution, Anthropology and Political Science
- Attended the BFRO BC Expeditions in August of 2005, 2006, 2012 as well as Vancouver Island 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014.
- Organized the 2007, 2008 Vancouver Island as well as 2009 North Vancouver Island Expeditions.
- Author of "Woodknocks and Tossed Rocks: Searching for Sasquatch with the Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization.