QUOTE
Eerie childhood sighting initiates lifelong quest
By: Will Tremain
Science has never proved that the sasquatch exists, but Jerry Kraynyk believes it is out there.
The idea of an unidentified human-like creature that lives in the wilderness has haunted Kraynyk since childhood.
When he was about 10, Kraynyk said, he saw a hairy creature roughly eight feet tall just outside his house in White Mud Falls, near Powerview.
"I went outside to check out what the dog was so upset about," Kraynyk said. "I saw this very large creature, covered in hair, sort of loping down towards the water away from us. I sort of just froze there in disbelief."
"The thing stopped and looked at us and this awful howl-scream came out of it, and I sort of snapped out of it there, grabbed the dog, and I took off like a shot back to the house."
Kraynyk, 41, who now operates the water treatment plant for the towns of Pine Falls and Powerview, said as an adult he felt compelled to find out more about the creature.
"Once I saw it that just drove me to dig deep for answers," Kraynyk said. "I just want to see it again. Just to reaffirm that yes, there is something out there that we don't understand."
A lot has been written about the sasquatch, a.k.a. Bigfoot, as it forms part of aboriginal and rural lore worldwide.
Kraynyk read books and newspaper articles, mapped sasquatch sightings in Manitoba, and in 1991 started the Winnipeg River Sasquatch Association, a group that now has about 25 members. Kraynyk said he has correlated sightings in the province with areas of limestone and he speculated that the creature may live in underground limestone caverns.
Although the high cost of gas has forced Kraynyk to curtail his activity this year, he said, he normally spends one night a week in the bush in spring and fall seeking the creature. His wife supports his hobby and sometimes his 14-year-old son goes along for the ride.
Kranyk's hunts for the sasquatch involve going to a remote location, putting out bait of fish fillets or crabapples, and keeping watch from a blind. He sometimes runs what he calls "Operation Night Scream" and uses a boom box to play a recording of sasquatch cries he bought from the U.S..
Even an experienced sasquatch pursuer sometimes gets spooked. In June 2005, Kraynyk was in a remote swamp east of Jackfish Lake when he stumbled across what he described as a huge footprint. Feeling oddly uncomfortable, he left the spot quickly but came back the next day and made a plaster cast of the imprint which he still has.
"It is approximately 18 inches long, nine inches wide, and about half an inch deep," Kraynyk said. "With toes. Five."
Around the globe the sasquatch goes by other names: the yeti in Tibet and Nepal; the yeren in mainland China. In Australia it goes by a moniker which might sum it all up: yowie.
will.tremain@freepress.mb.ca
By: Will Tremain
Science has never proved that the sasquatch exists, but Jerry Kraynyk believes it is out there.
The idea of an unidentified human-like creature that lives in the wilderness has haunted Kraynyk since childhood.
When he was about 10, Kraynyk said, he saw a hairy creature roughly eight feet tall just outside his house in White Mud Falls, near Powerview.
"I went outside to check out what the dog was so upset about," Kraynyk said. "I saw this very large creature, covered in hair, sort of loping down towards the water away from us. I sort of just froze there in disbelief."
"The thing stopped and looked at us and this awful howl-scream came out of it, and I sort of snapped out of it there, grabbed the dog, and I took off like a shot back to the house."
Kraynyk, 41, who now operates the water treatment plant for the towns of Pine Falls and Powerview, said as an adult he felt compelled to find out more about the creature.
"Once I saw it that just drove me to dig deep for answers," Kraynyk said. "I just want to see it again. Just to reaffirm that yes, there is something out there that we don't understand."
A lot has been written about the sasquatch, a.k.a. Bigfoot, as it forms part of aboriginal and rural lore worldwide.
Kraynyk read books and newspaper articles, mapped sasquatch sightings in Manitoba, and in 1991 started the Winnipeg River Sasquatch Association, a group that now has about 25 members. Kraynyk said he has correlated sightings in the province with areas of limestone and he speculated that the creature may live in underground limestone caverns.
Although the high cost of gas has forced Kraynyk to curtail his activity this year, he said, he normally spends one night a week in the bush in spring and fall seeking the creature. His wife supports his hobby and sometimes his 14-year-old son goes along for the ride.
Kranyk's hunts for the sasquatch involve going to a remote location, putting out bait of fish fillets or crabapples, and keeping watch from a blind. He sometimes runs what he calls "Operation Night Scream" and uses a boom box to play a recording of sasquatch cries he bought from the U.S..
Even an experienced sasquatch pursuer sometimes gets spooked. In June 2005, Kraynyk was in a remote swamp east of Jackfish Lake when he stumbled across what he described as a huge footprint. Feeling oddly uncomfortable, he left the spot quickly but came back the next day and made a plaster cast of the imprint which he still has.
"It is approximately 18 inches long, nine inches wide, and about half an inch deep," Kraynyk said. "With toes. Five."
Around the globe the sasquatch goes by other names: the yeti in Tibet and Nepal; the yeren in mainland China. In Australia it goes by a moniker which might sum it all up: yowie.
will.tremain@freepress.mb.ca
