ATV, Dirt Bike, Snowmobile

During a fall caribou hunting trip along a trail leading past Swede Lakes down to the North Fork of the Gulkana River south of the Denali Highway, an eight-man group of experienced hunters successfully harvested five caribou. Late one afternoon, a solitary hunter stayed behind to watch a fresh carcass while his companions returned to camp for additional game bags and tools. Left alone in the gathering dark with only a headlamp, the hunter was aggressively confronted by a 9-foot-tall, bipedal creature that issued a highly abnormal, complex 'chirping and bellowing' vocalization.

Beginning in December 2015, a resident named Sally endured ongoing seasonal Sasquatch activity at her rental home situated roughly 75 feet off the Delta Clearwater River bank in Alaska's interior, noting that events consistently peaked in April and autumn. While relaxing with her boyfriend in an outdoor hot tub on a small knoll 25 feet from the structure in -10°F weather, a massive multi-octave shriek-whistle erupted from the river slough, immediately accompanied by a heavy rock thrown forcefully against the hot tub's framework.

Following a successful solo caribou hunt the year prior, an Anchorage resident named Doug brought his wife Claire and their 15-year-old son back to the North Fork of the Gulkana River, traversing a steep, frosted trail past Swede Lake down to the river crossing. Seeking to avoid a crowded hunter 'shanty town' near the foothills, Doug steered his four-wheelers and an equipment trailer Due West along a rough, overgrown river slough trail, eventually establishing a 'glamping' site on a flat shelf at the base of a prominent tundra shale-rock Butte.

In the winter of 1987, an 11-to-13-year-old native youth named Joseph gained permission to drive his father's Arctic Cat Jag snowmachine, leading his two younger brothers (ages nine and seven) on a Yamaha Bravo 340 into the remote tundra islands west of Sophie's Landing along the Nushagak River. Armed with a heavy 8mm rifle and two .22s to harvest small game, the boys successfully dispatched a porcupine on an oblong island of black spruce trees. While processing the harvest, a dense, blinding winter sea fog rolled in rapidly off Bristol Bay.

Three winters prior to 2022, a small construction company owner named Clint treated three of his laborers to a week-long snowmachining vacation near Paxson and the Denali Highway after completing a major renovation project ahead of schedule. While riding near a remote mountain creek drainage feeding a lake just west of the Richardson Highway junction, an 800 RMK snowmachine slipped its track. Due to severe winds and lack of towing gear, the party piled snow over the chassis to stash it overnight.

An experienced interior wilderness trapper with twenty years on the Kuskokwim River drainage abruptly terminated his business after a terrifying multi-day encounter loop. While running his 10-mile oval line on a Skidoo Tundra snowmachine, he discovered several traps systematically sprung with zero target catches; strangely, the surrounding snowpack had been meticulously scrubbed with fresh spruce boughs to purposefully erase any track marks.

During a winter backcountry snowmachining excursion, a group of four friends staged out of Trappers Creek to boondock through fresh, deep powder fields. Navigating individual routes using personal GPS trackers, George paused his 700 RMK snowmachine on a segment of packed ground to safely fill his engine with a spare gas can. While refueling, he noted an immense dark form executing high-speed maneuvers through a thick tree line several hundred yards back.

In the 1980s, lifelong outdoorsmen Spencer and Max returned to a remote, reverse-Z-shaped muskeg swamp line near the boundary of Denali National Park, ten years after discovering an abandoned camp layout and enduring anomalous mimicry whistles and gibberish vocalizations in their youth. Operating a high-speed Honda 250R three-wheeler, Spencer hopped off the rear rack to escape exhaust fumes, walking the spongy moss edge while Max opened the throttle down a 3-mile valley trail.

In a village panel recording, a Dillingham-born Yup'ik woman named Hillary detailed the traditional, generational safeguards and encounters surrounding the communities of the Nushagak River drainage, including Ekwok, Portage Creek, Stuyahok, and New Koliganek. Raised under strict elders' warnings that stepping into the dark sloughs or river bluffs would cause children to be abducted or eaten by the 'hairy man,' Hillary noted that the presence of inverted, root-up spruce tree markers cleanly jammed into the soil was a routine sight in the region.

In an extensive panel interview, a mainland native resident named Mike detailed the profound oral histories and recent close-range encounters on a remote, windswept island in the Bering Sea. Mike's grandfather (born in 1904) maintained historical accounts of a rogue 'hairy man' who systematically abducted and consumed disobedient village children caught out past dark, culminating in a historic campaign where a local shaman tracked and dispatched an entity, slicing open its stomach to recover nine hairless, amnesiac children.

Last winter, Brian headed to Delta Junction on the Richardson Highway to help a friend fix his snow machine.  Near the Gulkana River, he noticed a black dot in the snow, which would likely not be a bear at that time of year.  After helping his friend, he stayed the night and took off the next morning to head back to Anchorage.  He felt ill shortly after leaving and pulled over near the Delta River to relieve himself when he noticed a black dot dart from his left to his right, prompting him to remember seeing the same thing the previous day.

Mark was camping with his family off the Matanuska River back in 2020 when they heard a scream and loud splashing in the river.  After he saw it in the water, they had sunlight and used it to pack up camp and leave.  He has not camped since.

Four years ago, Craig, with his wife and daughter, were four-wheeling and looking for moose trails at Jim Creek when they encountered what they first thought was a bear. Once Craig saw it was a Sasquatch after it threw a handful of gravel at him, they quickly left. Craig was ridiculed by those to whom he told of the encounter.

Derrick shared this incident involving wolves and a Hairy Man that took place in the 1990s on the Kvichak River with him and a coworker. There are accounts of Sasquatch keeping wolves as pets or using them for some purpose. I'm gathering more information on this lesser-explored aspect of their behavior.

Two brothers went on a moose hunt and things didn't go as expected. This encounter highlights the inconceivable strength of these creatures when considering the weight of a moose.