Hiking

An encounter shared by an Athabaskan couple, Alvin and Myrna, occurred in February 2020 while hiking the Devil's Creek Trail near the Kenai Peninsula with their nine-month-old Tibetan Mastiff, Skippy. While navigating an uphill stretch on a packed snowmachine trail, Alvin was walking slightly ahead of Myrna, who was admiring the scenery further down the path. Suddenly, a voice perfectly replicating Myrna's exact pitch and tone called out the dog's name from a thick patch of snow-covered willow shrubs directly ahead of Alvin.

Around late July in 2017 or 2018, a group of four friends from Colorado—Billy, Chuck, Dennis, and Maria—set up a large two-room blackout tent on a gravel wash in Rainbow Basin, situated at the northwestern corner of Lake Nerka within Wood-Tikchik State Park. After encountering deep, sub-audible grunts that physically vibrated their folding chairs and a series of sharp, crisp whistles that closely shadowed Dennis and Maria during a walk, the group constructed a wide 50-foot perimeter using fine fishing lines rigged with 12-gauge shotgun shell proximity alarms.

A few years prior to 2023, Tabitha and Nicholas, two experienced long-distance hikers, set out on the Power Creek Trail near Cordova to reach the Ohman Falls cabin. After successfully navigating an initial major landslide approximately 0.8 miles into the trek under heavy rain, they reached a low saddle section of the trail filled with clear standing water and deep mud. Nicholas stepped off the trail to avoid the pool, prompting Tabitha to discover a fresh series of massive, water-filled muddy tracks that initially resembled large double bear prints.

During an autumn backpacking trip along the Resurrection Pass Trail system stretching from the Girdwood/Indian area toward Eagle River, a medical professional named Bailey and her younger brother Brian set up camp in a remote valley pocket. After hearing an identical series of sharp, crisp whistles tracing their trek, they pitched a bright neon yellow-green dome tent within a grove of black spruce and willow trees.

A couple named Isaac and Marcy, along with their yellow lab Jesse, reserved a remote day cabin near Lynx Lake within the Nancy Lake State Recreation Area between Big Lake and Willow. While hiking an un-frozen shoreline trail during the autumn season, a sudden, absolute silence dropped over the forest canopy, prompting Isaac to prudently turn the party back out of bear caution.

Three years prior to 2022, two finance professionals from São Paulo, Brazil, named Louis and Franco, embarked on a high-priced guided wolf and bear combo hunt on the outskirts of the Katmai Wildlife Refuge down on the Alaska Peninsula. Operating from a remote spike camp carefully hacked out inside a ten-foot radius of thick willow shrubs to shield from heavy winds, the hunters hiked up a treacherous switchback path onto an adjacent high mountain shelf to glass a major north-south river clearing.

In an on-site field interview conducted north of Willow along the Deception Creek trail system, a lifelong Alaskan outdoorsman named Ryan walked the channel researcher through a highly strategic, dual-creature stalking encounter. While tracking a game trail leading past a localized swamp clearing at dusk, Ryan's two highly trained dogs—Keen and Brutus—suddenly locked up with their hackles completely raised. A massive unseen presence began heavily pacing and paralleling Ryan's route through a dense thicket of tall willow and alder brush just 20 to 25 yards away.

During a spring bear hunt expedition, a veteran Alaskan bush pilot named Buck flew two out-of-state hunters to a remote base camp east of Salcha. Left with an hour of free fuel time, Buck puddle-jumped his Piper Cub onto a nearby open tundra ridge flanked by a sparse black spruce tree line and large old-growth timber stands. Encountering an uncanny, absolute silence upon stepping out of his cockpit, Buck slung a .454 Casull revolver on his chest and hiked 500 yards out into a tundra berry patch to engage in wildlife photography.

Around 2014, two brothers, Kyle and his younger sibling (spaced less than two years apart), were foraging wild berries along a remote backcountry trail roughly a mile and a half deep from any actual road system on the outskirts of Fairbanks. After picking berries, they detected an unsettling, low-frequency 'grumbling' acoustic pattern that seemed completely constant and unceasing within the thicket, prompting them to pack their buckets.

Around 2016, a seasonal cannery worker from Dillingham named Jesse utilized his week off to execute a solo catch-and-release silver salmon trek along Silver Salmon Creek, hiking from the Aleknagik Road culverts down to the Wood River mouth. Setting up an 8-inch skillet camp cookstove on a hard bank slough, Jesse heard a series of heavy 'woof' grunts that he initially attributed to a stray dog. While casting into a deep pool, an absolute silence dropped over the drainage, and Jesse spotted a large chocolate-brown mass crouching across the channel just 20 meters out.

In the mid-1970s, a 10-year-old boy named Dan, who had recently relocated to the Gulkana River drainage region, wandered off into the timber alone. After navigating a trail where he was actively paced and eventually cut off by a large, intimidating hair-covered figure 15 yards out, he retreated. Eight months later in May, during a torrential rainstorm, Dan became profoundly lost in the remote backcountry wearing only a t-shirt and jeans.

Retired teacher Mary had an experience with a few friends at the Kennecott Mines about 15 years ago.  After setting up camp, they decided to hike up the mountain to check out the back side.  After her friend whistled some TV theme songs, they heard the songs whistled back to them.  They called out, but no response.  As they're walking back to camp, they heard the songs whistled back again, as well as some movement.  Mary suddenly stopped and saw a Sasquatch about 10' away, standing about 9' tall.  As she let out a half-scream, she had a sudden sense of calm.

A share from Rick, who had an encounter while on a four-day backpacking trip to spread ashes of his mother in a mountain range in the Yukon that she loved.  On the first night of his camp, Sasquatches began to try to smother his campfire while he stepped away to take a leak.  He saw someone moving in the trees and thought it was a person.  He shot into the air, and as his ears were ringing, he saw the Sasquatch standing behind the tree about 30 feet away.  When he shot again, he heard two sets of footsteps running away.

Approximately 20 years ago, a couple named Margaret and Kyle were foraging for wild berries along a remote muskeg slough near the Alphabet Mountains, south of the Denali Highway. While separated by 100 feet to maximize coverage, Margaret heard a deep, guttural grunt; assuming it was her husband, she called out until she caught sight of a massive, dark movement through the alder brush that did not correspond to her husband's location.