From Ray Crowe:
Date: February 21, 2001RECENT BIGFOOT ACTIVITY TOLD OF AT WBS MEETING
By a stroke of good luck, the day before the meeting, Wednesday, Feb 21st, there was a Bigfoot sighting out the Clackamas River, and the investigator called me immediately. I invited him, Jerry Mitchell, to come on in to the meeting and tell us about the sighting as our guest speaker.
One and a quarter miles east of the Ripplebrook Ranger Station on Forest Road #4631, the witness, Rick S. was turning his truck around, looking out the back window. There were two students from the local Job Corp Center with him and they had been painting on some Forest Service buildings near the helipad.
The creature, a male, bright “totally red, skinny, and agile, 5-6 feet tall” was seen to run quickly across the road, from north to south, jumping down from a slope with a game trail, and running very swiftly across the road with bent knees, and out of sight downhill towards marshy Stallion Creek.
Indentations were later seen on the game trail, and the witness went back to the area several times. The sighting was at 11:30 AM, the elevation about 1600 feet, and the creature was about 200 feet away. N edge Sec. 6, R6E T5S. On up the road that they were turning on (locked gate...Road #160, old designation #4631), are sheds used to stock feed for winter elk feeding (without FS permission, these were not checked for evidence of the creature’s presence. They could be utilizing the sheds as shelter or as a source of high protein grain).
It had been cloudy with no wind, and at the time of the sighting, a ray of sun illuminated the creature through the trees. There was no snow on the ground (it had not snowed since January) at the time of the sighting, no odor noticed, it had rained in the early morning. The ground cover was heavy moss and duff away from the game trail, and the area was in a heavy growth of older hemlock, with some cedar evident.
Joe Beelart filed this report from his investigation at the site:
Ripplebrook Sighting
To: Ray Crowe
Field investigation on Friday, Feb. 23, 2001 by Joe Beelart, Trapper Steve and Cliff Olson (in no order of importance).
Preliminary report: to Jerry Mitchell who lives near the witness in Ripplebrook. He works for the Forest Service in that area. Telephone: 503-834-2216. Jerry is a member of the Western Bigfoot Society.
Date of event: Wednesday, Feb. 21, 2001
Time: About 10:30 AM
Weather: Few clouds, bright, illuminating sun from SE onto site.
What witness was doing: Taking a break with two Job Corps students by driving up the road intending to go for a walk. He was backing the crew-cab, a long-bed paint-truck into the turn-out per FS procedure when he looked up the road and saw the creature.
Witness: Rickie S. (deleted)
Where: At mile 1.7 on FS road 4631 off OR Hwy 224 at the Ripplebrook Ranger Station about 20 miles SE of Estacada, OR. Site was about 75' going up the hill from the far edge of the east side of the gate turn out. About 50' beyond site, the road curves to the left (north).
Length of sighting: about one-second. Was termed, "like a frame from a movie," by witness. Said the creature was excellently illuminated by the sun and the asphalt road background. The sun was probably in a back light situation as we were on site at about 10:30 AM Friday, almost exactly 48 hours after the incident. Cliff Olson felt the sun was not overhead, but at more of a high southeasterly angle.
What happened: Bigfoot jumped south from high bank on left, crossed road and went down hill into flatland wet area.
Description: Compared to Trapper Steve who is 6' plus in boots and stocky, witness said the creature was 2' taller, but changed to over a foot taller (this is taller than the original 5-6 feet that was estimated...Steve was a good model), and much more stockily built. Said the creature was in a classic arm forward/backward running pose when out on road. Said hair hung down under the extended arm (his gesture indicated 4-6"). Said hair color was red/brown. Said creature was "very hairy," covered all over with long hair, including the head and that it was not fur. Made a point that the raised foot was pointed toward him and was "padded like a dog's."
Described the pad as "dark colored." Said the head appeared to have a crest or peak, but due to the direction of travel, could not see the face. Said the creature was very muscular and fast. Immediately after sighting: Witness rapidly got out of truck (6 passenger, green Forest Service PU) and ran to the crossing site, followed by the two students. Witness said he found himself calling out: "Come back, come back!" (the students, looking forward at the time, failed to see the creature).
Witness said that, then himself and the students became overwhelmed with a "feeling or a warning," to get out of the area, which they did. He also reported that they felt they were being "watched." He said that although the students hadn't seen the creature and he hadn't talked to them about it yet, they both told him, "Let's get out of here!" He went back and called Jerry Mitchell who he knew had an interest in Bigfoot, to ask about what he had seen. Jerry Mitchell came up to the search area and confirmed this.
Afterwards: Witness reports seeing the thing in his sleep and going back to the area at least 10 times from roughly Wednesday, Feb. 21 at noon until he found out about our arrival at the site at about 10:30 on Friday, Feb. 23, 2001.
What we found: Prior to Rickie S. coming to the scene on his own, Trapper Steve and Joe Beelart found the crossing point on their own. It was identifiable by smooth, large pad marks (photographs coming) going down a game trail. Only 20' away were two deer and elk game trails paralleling the one the beast used.
On the down hill side of the crossing, Trapper Steve found a short, rotted out stump that something long had clearly curled behind in a possible attempt at concealing itself. A close examination of the "bedding site" by both Steve and Joe revealed no hairs. Also near a swampy creek on the downhill side, he found a worn path with no deer or elk tracks in it, except in a crossing pattern. The path was easily walked with only a minimal amount of brush even touching a human. There were large, indistinct imprints in the forest duff in the area. On the uphill side, Joe and Cliff found some large, indistinct imprints, including one that was identifiable as a left foot. Toe marks in impacted dirt and the curve of the foot in smashed down forest duff were clearly visible.
Where a tracked vehicle was unloaded some time ago, a very old ant killer bottle was found, just sitting there. It is available for finger printing.
Other: One of the Forest Service employees speculated that the creature was going for elk feed in older work buildings about a quarter mile away. This was not confirmed. Joe will call the FS about elk feed the first of the week.
On Friday, March 2nd, a film crew from the ABC TV program “Uncovered” flew up from Los Angeles, and I took them to the site, where we met Jetty Michell and he was interviewed. As I had been interviewed earlier in the day, I searched the roads myself, and took a few background photos for the TR. The game trail that Jerry said the creature was on had no trace of prior tracks, many fresh deer tracks chopping the trail up. It was muddy, having been raining heavily the day before, and while we were there, snow showers were heavily obscuring things, though they would clear to sunshine from time to time (as it was 3PM, we were able to observe shafts of sunlight penetrating the trees). No hairs were found on brush along the trail, and on the uphill side where the game trail intersected #160, a torn up log was noted (bears and Bigfeet do this for grubs or termites). Correspondent John Mattes said that the film should air in about two weeks-Mar 16th.The camera and sound work was done by free-lancer Jeff Hockett. Following the interview we drove to the Lighthouse Restaurant in Linnton where we met, and John interviewed, Terry Reams on his I-84 incident. As the program Uncovered is formerly the National Inquirer news-magazine, airing mostly short clips of entertainment personalities, we aren’t expecting much. Update...the film aired on ABC at noon on Mar. 9th. They surprisingly did a very good job, without the usual snickering. Thanks Uncovered...we hope somebody saw it that will call in another good report.
Cliff Olson went up on Saturday, 2/24, to the sighting area, and filed the following report ( edited):
Went up to Wednesday’s sighting area shortly after noon Saturday alone. My intent was to check out the available routes IT took into the area. I started back at an old baiting area near Beaverpond, toward Frog Lake where we found that big pile of crap (photo previously in TR). A young couple with a child, beat me into the pond area, so that cut my look-see short. Went back to Oak Grove Housing area (1.5 mi. E of site off 4631, passed two men walking toward the housing area, believe them to be Job Corp inmates. Drove past the “sighting area” to the old Silvertip site (2 mi. E. on 4631). Snooped around there for 10-15 minutes to let two hikers get clear. Went back to area of interest, parked above entrance to Oak Grove and walked the road looking for tracks on game trails.Bingo, found one large track just above ditch on steep well used game trail, large flat pad with two distinct toe prints, track was somewhat obliterated because of deer and elk usage. Not it gets a bit more interesting, the track was just above Howard Rhronthaler’s old house. I found it while walking away from the jeep. I continued walking till I got just beyond the buildings, as I was about to turn and walk back. I noticed a squirrel making quite a racket up-slope and just that quick something was busting some brush too. Not a lot, but like crash, crash, then subtle noises. Snap, rustle, rustle, these noises continued off and on my entire walk back to the jeep. Another squirrel got into the action also. My stroll back distance was about 5 or 6 hundred yards and I was flanked by this noise maker all the way back to my rig. The up-slope flattened out some 50 yards up, making “skylining” possibilities for quite a ways, but try as I may, I saw nothing that ever showed itself. The old housing and storage area needs further investigation, we need to know who’s responsible and get permission to snoop around. Those open sheds could make good shelter. I also saw about a dozen deer in and around area of interest.. (Ray...speculating, sure sounds like Cliff was being followed by possibly the same creature seen earlier.)
To confuse matters even more, Thom Powell, BFRO Curator, filed this report: tpowell@pps.k12.or.us
Jim H. and his girlfriend Gaye went up the Clackamas on Friday (March 2) afternoon. I briefed them on the Ripplebrook/Job Corps deal but they chose to backpack in 2 and a half miles up the closed and removed road up Fish Creek. They camped up Fish Creek for two nights. On the second night (Sat.) Jim heard light but sustained movement in the brush around camp after dark but before bed. Just before dawn he was awakened by a strong skunk smell. After sunrise he checked the area and found two fresh footprints in the duff about fifty feet from camp. He says they were very clear, close together, and about 15 inches long. Jim feels confident that his camp was cased by Mr. Squatch and he tends to be on the skeptical side when it comes to that which some see as Bigfoot tracks.
To finish this Clackamas report off, Cliff Olson was at Frog Lake (just north of Ripplebrook), and was glassing to the south towards High Lake, Mar. 3, and noted a trail in the snow coming straight down the mountain (deer and elk travel at angles) and across the scree, not turning until at the bottom near some timber. The sun was just right to see the trail about 4800 feet, with his 19X binoculars, the trail being 3.5-4 miles away and Cliff thought 3-4 feet wide. It is possible a bear coming out of semi-hibernation might come down a slope like that...or early season Bigfoot migrating in the good weather to the north. There was a lower pass though, and Cliff wonders why, if Bigfoot, it wasn’t used.
