While taking advantage of the perpetual daylight of an Alaskan summer, Fred and two cousins took a skiff up the McClung River—a small tidal tributary of the Wood River near Dillingham—to fish for early king salmon. After beaching the boat in a narrow, high-banked stretch of the river to reminisce and mourn the recent passing of a friend, they killed the outboard motor and began silently drifting back down the current. As they approached a slow-moving eddy at a fork in the river, rocks began raining down from the tall tidal grass above them, with several splashing directly into the hull of their skiff.
Rounding the bend to see what was throwing the rocks, the men were met with a massive, terrifying splash. Something had ripped an entire black spruce tree completely out of the ground from at least a half-mile away, carried it to the river, and violently slammed it upside down into the shallow water. Standing just forty-five feet away, directly behind the muddy root ball, was a massive Hairy Man. In a bizarre and deeply unsettling display, the towering creature stood partially turned, swaying back and forth and peeking out from behind the muddy roots, seemingly mimicking a deer attempting to hide its face. Thoroughly creeped out by the strange game of hide-and-seek, the men instantly fired up the outboard and fled back to the main river.
