The shrunken heads of the sasquatch cavern... Options

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The shrunken heads of the sasquatch cavern

By Ian Cobb - Invermere Valley Echo - Updated: March 31, 2009 4:31 PM

Two Columbia Valley residents have come forward with a harrowing story that is certain to ignite a heavy round of public scrutiny and debate.

And also likely draw some attention to the area. Because they have video to go along with their story.

Andy Kwiecien of Windermere and Wilmer resident Randy LeFou shared their tale of horror and intrigue with The Valley Echo after spending two weeks thinking about it.

“It’s all so extreme that we thought we couldn’t come forward and talk to anyone,” said Kwiecien, who arrived in the valley last year from Poland.

Like LaFou, he came to the valley for its bounty of backcountry recreation opportunities and the two men, both aged 29, embarked on what they thought would be one of their last ski touring expeditions on March 21.

Instead, what they experienced leaves the rational mind grasping for facts and the fantastic leaping at conclusions.

In short, the two men believe they spotted a sasquatch near the Coppercrown and Toby Creek Forest Service Roads and while their video doesn’t provide conclusive evidence, it does show them inspecting giant footprints and the startling ending of the video (which can be viewed at www.invermerevalleyecho.com) leaves one wondering about what may be going on off the roadway to Jumbo.

After discussing their harrowing adventure with some friends, the duo came to The Echo office last week to show their video and share their story. Shortly after, The Echo accompanied them to the site of the incident, which left them both nursing a variety of minor injuries, including a sprained ankle for LaFou and a separated shoulder for Kwiecien.

On the drive to the site, they shared their story.

“Andy was just getting his skis out and organizing our water and food and I was dusting off my video camera. While wandering around near where we parked, I saw some large imprints in some fresh powder snow,” LeFou said.

“He called me over to show me what he said he thought were bigfoot tracks,” Kwiecien said. “I never heard of bigfoot before so I didn’t know what he was talking about. A short time later he was walking up the road (Toby Creek) and he started shouting. I turned the camera on and began filming… trees mostly. He kept shouting he could see something and we ran down the road to try and get a better look.”

LeFou, admitting he feels funny about sharing his story, said he saw something moving through the bush, about 50 feet from the road.

“At first I thought it might be a moose. There are moose around the area but it didn’t move right. I then thought it might be a bear but it’s too early for them to be out of hibernation. And then I… I swear I saw something large and brown and it was moving — fast — through the bush so I gave chase,” he said.

Kwiecien added that after a brief sprint down the road, they veered off it and headed into the bush.

“I had to turn the camera off and put it in my jacket pocket because the snow was so deep and the hill so steep that I needed both hands to keep moving. Once we got to the top of the hill, we ran through some thick underbrush and that was when my feet went out from under me,” he recalled.

His buddy concurred. “My stomach went really light, as if I had gotten some major air and then everything just went black.”

They fell “about nine feet” into a dark cavern, LeFou said. “It smelled like a pack of wet, dead dogs and I thought we had accidentally fallen into a bear’s den. I freaked out.”

Kwiecien said he sat on the ground, trying to assess possible injuries and recognize what the smell could be when LeFou shouted.

“He was only a few feet away and he said he had his cell phone on him and a lighter and he began to try and cast some light around us. I pulled the camera out of my pocket and turned it on and, as the video shows, when our eyes adjusted and the light began to hit things, we realized we weren’t in a bear’s den,” Kwiecien said.

“It was heads… a bunch of tiny baby heads,” LeFou said. “We freaked out and tried to bolt but ran into a wall. So we sucked it up and took another look and sure enough, we were in a room of some kind… a cave of some kind that had shrunken heads on stakes and hanging from what I think were roots. And the smell of the place… like nothing you can imagine.”

It was at this point that the two men began to work together and found that they fell down a bending chute and with their eyes focussing more, saw the way out. Kwiecien boosted LeFou up and together they helped one another out of the cavern.

Shaken and completely freaked out, they walked about some more and found more footprints in the bush. They followed them back to their vehicle, where LeFou took some digital photographs.

On the day The Echo accompanied them back to the site, they became pensive and quite as we neared Coppercrown FSR.

“You probably think we’re nuts,” LeFou said, leading the paper and his friend down Toby Creek Road to the area he thought was where they ran off the road.

At this point, it should be noted that their ‘sasquatch’ sighting does not compare to the Oct 20, 1967, loping imagery captured by Roger Patterson and Bob Gimlin in California.

But they believe that they’ve uncovered something significant, and Kwiecien, who noted he remembers reading about ritualistic behaviours near Krakow, where he grew up, said from his research, he’s found little to note that the legendary sasquatch has not been known to be ritualistic in the human sense, but bizarre behaviour has been reported.

He showed The Echo an excerpt from a Web site he visited: “For years we have had reports of truly bizarre behavior being attributed to sasquatches. This has ranged from relatively benign responses to humans, such as the throwing of small stones, to more aggressive behavior in the form of shaking vehicles, slapping and shoving dwellings, throwing large rocks and chunks of wood, and chasing people. Loud, resonant calls and overwhelming (even “eye-watering”) odor has also been reported,” stated John Bindernagel, noted Sasquatch researcher on his Web site North America’s Great Ape: The Sasquatch.

It took several attempts to find the entrance to the cavern, which turned out to be an old mine entrance.

“I don’t know if I can go back down there,” LeFou said.

Kwiecien replied that he had to go back down, so two men and The Echo slowly duck-walked down the 20 or so degree slope into the darkness, lit up by our flashlights. About 20 feet down, we came to a spot where the ground had collapsed and opened into a spacious round cavern.

The flashlight beams flickered down into the murk and reflected off something light coloured — it was a small sign that declared “Happy April Fools!”