As this report does not appear to have had an investigator assigned to it, I decided to take a closer look on March 25th since I live fairly close to the area. I had to wait until the snow was off the eastern slopes which occurred recently from the warm up and rains.

BFRO Report 6303 Sullivan Lake Sighting

The trail above the lake is narrow and the banks are steep, mostly shale on the southern end. The trail was hardpack in the areas not covered in shale (skree fields). What I found interesting is I'm sure the witness did not know there was a cave above the sighting area. I did find a tree break on the trail above the rope swing and just to the north. The tree break can most definitely be from snow loading. I did check the skree fields for rock stacking as best as I could, the skree was very loose and the dog was having difficulty walking I was concerned he would cut his feet. It appears there are very few ungulates using the path as the few signs of scat were very old and no tracks. This is a bighorn sheep feeding area so I was surprised to not see fresh signs of deer or elk. Plenty of squirrels. Sorry for quality of pics, enough sun for flash to not flash, and just dark enough for the pics to be dark......

Rope Swing and Stump as described in report
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Cave above Rope Swing - recently blocked off for public safety and bat protection
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Tree Break - Alder
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Location
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Very low water level - drought?. Was the swing from days of higher tide?

Is that a dog's ass in pix #4??

Dogfoot in the Pacific Northwest they lower the levels in the lakes/resevoirs to keep them from becoming a flood hazard in the spring with the run-off from the winter snow melt. Otherwise in the spring when the snow started to melt if you had a full reservoir there'd be no place for the water to go except over the dams and down into the towns/cities downstream. Applegate Lake SW of Medford where I use to live is the same way. Come springtime before the snow starts to refill it all you see is what looks like a small creek going through the bottom of the lake bed. In a few weeks it's spilling over the dam as the lake fills up quite rapidly.

For sort of a rough idea of why, look at it this way. You have a lake resevoir that is the depository site for many mountain streams. As the snow melts, the water runs down the side of the mountains and into these streams. So in essence you have a lake/reservoir holding all the water from all the snow on all the mountains for maybe hundreds of square miles. Some of these mountains have snow that is twenty plus feet deep at the end of winter. 20' = 240" of snow 240" of powder snow contains approximately 2' of water. So if we took all that water and flattened the mountains out, we'd have several hundred square miles of a puddle 2' deep. Of course the mountains aren't flat so the water has to go somewhere.

Excellent response Moregon. Yes, many of our large bodies of water have dam's to control spring run-off, Sullivan lake also has a dam at the North end. We have over 70 lakes in the area, so we do have a good spring run off and occassional flooding, the Pend Oreille River takes most of it, last flood of the river was 1997.

Dogfoot, yes that is my dog's butt, he was doing some heavy sniffing of the entrance area. F&G found that rare bats are using the cave and closed it in the fall.

Here is a couple of pics of the runoff, a small waterfall and a raging one that took the road down to one lane, by the way, it's not a highway on the other side, it's a slow speed narrow winding road with potential for avalanche all along it, there is a one lane bridge on the south end over Sullivan Creek. The avalance and mud slide potential was enough to make me nervous about climbing on the skree fields.

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There a lots of reports in and around Sullivan lake, and down to Ione. Some of the others make it look like a bit of a hot spot.

http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&q=La...sa=N&tab=wl

http://www.bfro.net/GDB/show_county_report...ty=Pend+Oreille

This report from 4 months later also sees the gray hair:

http://www.bfro.net/GDB/show_report.asp?id=11186

Why is it folks who have these kinds of sightings never have a camera with them...



Only 15 yards away and sitting still....yikes!

Thanks for the pics and the scouting NWSquatcher. I've wondered about this general area for some time now -- Bossburg is what, only 60-70 miles as the crow flies? So there is history in the area. Plenty of space to hide, I think, and plenty of water.

I'm not sure I'd call it a hotspot, but has potential. I have been keeping track when I can, here is a map of what I have.
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VA Footer, go figure, just kidding, how about the reverse, people with camera's don't have many sightings and if some do, it's a blur and questionable. You almost have to wonder if people with cameras have the same problem as people with guns, you have them in your visual site but can't shoot the subject..... the sense of awe stops or slows reaction time.

Squonksquatch, thank my dog, he wakes up in the morning with the springy bouncy are we going hiking huh, huh, lets go... attitude, he gets me out there more than I normally would :laugh: There is definitely plenty of water, plenty of dense cover and plenty of food sources as well as low human population. The only problem with this area is vastness of it. I built a spread sheet of conditions per sighting and tried to correlate behaviors and conditions. If you would like to see the spreadsheet PM me. Yes, Bossburg is close.

Good pics for documenting your hike! Thanks for sharing.

Since the report in question occurred in August, I wonder where the water line would be then. Down here in Oregon, that's when the drought season is showing it's gastly face.

On the subject of camera/no camera... if he was busy getting his camera, his moment of observing this animal/man would have been even shorter, IMHO. If indeed he saw a sasquatch, the moment he fumbled for the camera, Sas would've been gone, just as when he briefly looked away.

On a side note... interesting that what was observed was crossing his legs with his hands together at the knee... Maybe even Sas can appreciate a good view, comfortably...

... and the silver/grey hair would blend in with the rocks... makes ya wonder.

I am not near nor am I from that area, but I have too. :new_thumbsupsmileyanim: I have been there though and that area of eastern Wa and northern Idaho (and north into BC) has always seemed to be quintessential Bigfoot Country™ to me. For the same reasons you mention. And just enough people around (especially in summer) to see them once-in-awhile but not enough to make it appear there's a whole herd of them there...when in fact there actually could be if it is fact properly licensed Bigfoot Country™. I'd put that measley 5,000 square mile area in the top 3 places to start searching first.

You take the north fork trail and...I'll sit in the car and make sure nobody steals it. :ohmy:

Definitely, sitting there with his hands on his knees, he would have the same profile as the stump on the bank that he was right next to. Most of us would have floated on by.

Thanks NWSquatcher. I've wanted a picture to go along with that report for a long time now. That looks nicer than the Shoe Tree. Interesting tree break. Northeastern Washington/Idaho panhandle/Northwestern Montana is hard to beat. Great area and lucky you.

Your welcome Sojourner, the shoe tree is still interesting and worth a chuckle. LOL, lucky me, like Harry said........ measly 5000 sq miles....... :new_weirdsmiley: Your more than welcome to come on over, plenty of territory to cover. I am thinking about camping there soon, no one is around, nice and quiet. Gotta wonder about the cave's use before being closed off.

Oregonfooter and Morgoth, My first thought was definitely that the gray would have blended in with the shale and stump, perhaps it moved so the lady could see him...... speculation of course. I wondered about her statement that he had disappeared into the brush, as the incline was solid shale with duff cover but steep and noisy to climb (getting down was tough, slick sliding shale, went down sideways) didn't want to fall into the lake, it's deep right there and damn cold. On that side of the lake there is no easy trail down to the lake except at either end, the trail itself was narrow, the dog and I could not walk side by side on majority of trail. Oregonfooter, the lake level will be dependant on run off and snow depth as well as how slowly or quickly the higher elevations warm up, snow can still be in the higher ele's til June and even July in colder years. I have not seen the lake completely full for a few years. There is probably annual lake level data somewhere on the net.

Harry, the nice thing about this area, is the small population of recreationists in the summer (county has approx 12k people, but half go south for winter), people tend to prefer the big lakes like Coeur d' Alene and Lake Pend Oreille, also they tend to not get so far from the city or a big enough town.... LOL, it's actually pretty nice. Mostly locals and hunters/fishermen. Come on Harry, get out of the car, you will enjoy the scenery better that way, I promise. There is even a small cafe in Met Falls that serves the best fresh 12 oz t-bone with stuffed potato, fresh bread and salad bar for cheap after a day of vigorous hiking :new_thumbsupsmileyanim:
:laugh:

Not to far up the road in British Columbia are a few sightings in Kaslo and around Kootenai Lake, Revelstoke and Nelson area. This area does have the potential, the vastness is daunting tho. I think it's a hit and miss here, for some reason, sightings every few years, speculation in my opinion is the possibility of migration...... but who really knows. The majority of sightings are north in the most rugged part of the county close to the Canadian border, but also inline with the Okanagon Valley where there have also been sightings.

Oh, by the way, 1Sunseeker if you read this, hit one grouse (wrapped around my axle) and two playing chicken with me on the road up north, they look fat and sassy. You ought to bring that motorhome up, do some fishing, camping and bigfooting.

What is interesting Oregonfooter is the fact that a gray was possibly seen in the same area in April of that year before the woman reported her sighting in August (maybe I should go camping soon........ I'm a cold wuss). As it always is without evidence, we can only wonder....... but how often do you get two reports of the same color (unusual) in the area, around the same time give or take 4 months..... :smile:

Morgoth had posted the link in his reply:
BFRO Report 11186 Possible Sighting at Sullivan Lake

That initial report, for some reason, made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up !!

When reading it, i could actually visulise the BF which i have never done before in reading other reports !!

Spooky !!

The whole Mountainside above Rope Swing and Stump (March 30th 07)

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Question anwsered as to Lake Level status:

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(edited to add):
It has also come to my attention that this probably did have an investigator attached but during the mass exodus the investigators info has been removed. If that person is on this forum, could you please PM me.

The water level in Washington lakes can vary quite drastically naturally over a typical year. My ex and I owned a small lake that was completely surrounded by boulders. They'd be covered in bleached dead algae as the level dropped, then as the water rose it would be colored light aquamarine. Someone told me it was from cobalt, but I thought it was from the dried, white algae.

A smaller lake below it dried up completely one year and was full of prints of animals after the stranded trout. No sas prints though.

Great pics. They make me homesick.

Morgoth,
I did want to add that it is interesting to see the direction of travel in some of the vehicle road sightings, I am going to speculate that Sasquatch crosses the Pend Oreille River, knowing this area like the back of my hand, there is not much land between the highway and the river (highway follows river). If river crossing's are occuring from the Kiniksu's to the Okanagan's there may be a pattern of either migration or large range area. (speculation).

LAL, I understand, I was on the road for 18 months and missed home and our mountains.

I still wonder about this report & if this old Grey Boy was ever seen again & is even still alive ??

As i said in a previous post, for some reason, this report really got to me, maybe had something to do with the excellent Pictures too..

Some comments on Sullivan Lake area and Sightings.

This last July (2006) there were several evenings when campers at the Noisy Creek Camp ground smelled foul non skunk oder. I myself heard 3 or four screams in Late July in the afternoon. Last winter a friends cabin on the lake had one shutter torn off. The Sheet Rock screws were pulled right thru the wood trim on the shutter. No claw marks or tool marks on the shutter or window frame. No paw or nose prints on the window glass. Gate locked, no human, or animal or vehicle tracks (this was just after the last 2 inches of power that had fallen on the very last of the winter snow.) I speculated to the owner that whatever it was ripped off the shutter and saw "its" reflection in the window and spooked. The grab point was about 8 foot off the ground. and it ripped 3/8th inch fiber board / particle board like you or I would rip a cereal box. Sullivan creek is at the north end of the lake Harvey creek is at the south. The rope swing in the pictures is probably not the one in the 2002 incident (there are now two rope swings, one near noisy creek and another near the north end of the lake, I thought from the description of the incident that the one at the north end of the lake is the more likely site of the incident, but when I walked the trail (first one of the season, this March or April) I diden't see a well worne trail suggesting that the area was being regularly visited by a large hominoid, the guy who had his shutter torn off says it was yet another rope swing that had broken off and fallen in the lake. One of the former locals suggests that the harry guy was just one of the locals who likes to show off his harry body. (note: at the south end of the lake there is a curved tree trunk / limb with square spikes and the remains of a swing on it?) The fellow who had his cabin dammaged has noticed a strange non skunk smell in the early evening along the road south of the campground. The cave is an old mine shaft (probably gold), this is easy to spot from the tailings and the fact that the "cave" goes into a quartz vein. Almost every quarts vein I've seen in the area has been worked on at one time or another. The trail was almost naked of scat, coyote and some very old deer and sheep tracks, no human or fresh tracks at all. By comparison nearby game trails were scattered with scat every 8 to 10 feet or so. I did notice some strange holes in the ice. Some obviously made by critters that had broken thru the ice but some were symmetrical and had jagged cracks like impact had made the hole. They were not the neat round holes made by ice fishermen. One set of holes consisted of a large man hole size hole surrounded by smaller holes spaced out around the large hole in a near perfect ring. I live near by and often sleep with my window open outside of some coyotes, maybe a few wolves I haven't heard much. There were bears all over my yard this fall, they tore up my apple, pear and plum trees and they scattered the remains all over my yard and I was finding apple and plum scat as far as 800 yards from my house. This fall has been almost barren with just an occasional moose and mule dear. No sign of the Sheep. Others have seen a pair of cougars in the area two or three times and last winter they chased one up the mountain with dogs. I think the pair are her offspring who are still "hanging" together.

Witness statement from BFRO report on location:


Bolding mine. If the witness were discussing the right side of the North end "heading in" then she would be referring to the Hwy side. The location of the rope swing that I had posted was approximate to her description of location. I did not note a new swing in March on the North end, but then again, I couldn't get to most area's due to snow depth and ice still on the lake. I did glass the East bank (where the trail is) and noted heavy use by animals (tracks in snow).

You can contact me by PM if you would like to discuss this with me, I'd be interested in hearing more about the cabin with the shutter torn off.

Nice to see that my favourite ever sighting is still being investigated, well kind of anyway & it seems as though that old Grey Boy is still active, or maybe some of his Offspring are at least...