SC EP:1200 Tumalo Creek Creature

JD writes "I was 17 years old. Heading into my senior year in high school. Life was good. This was in 2001, over summer break. On a blue sky summer day, my friend and I decided to go out for a drive and walk around a park, known as Shevlin Park. Now, back in 2002 you could go out to places in and around Bend and it wouldn't be overcrowded by tourists.

Shevlin Park was on the outskirts of town with trails along Tumalo Creek that backed up to nothing but nature. Of course today there's houses and it feels more like a park surrounded by residential housing.

I included a photo to help understand my encounter. In the photo, the red dot is where my friend and I parked. The yellow dot is where we had our encounter and the direction this creature went. That day we got lucky as there was nobody else around. We decided to take a walk over to Tumalo Creek. Within minutes of walking I noticed in front of me a large pine tree that had fallen over. The tree was resting up on its stump and it had fallen over into a thick growth patch of pine trees and aspens and your random shrubs. I got the immediate idea to hop up onto the tree and attempt to balance my way along the fallen tree. Now this tree, resting on the stump and the top of the tree now resting in a thicket of trees, there was probably about 3 feet of space from the tree parallel to the ground. I was about 5ft 11inches so I figured once I was up on the tree walking along it I would have been close to 9ft. My friend stayed on the ground and walked along the side as I walked my way on the fallen tree. Now I had only been up on this fallen tree for a matter of seconds and as I started to walk on the fallen tree I suddenly started hearing what sounded like branches breaking, shrubs being smashed, basically, trees being disturbed by something. I glance up towards the sound and all I can see is this black mass at the end of the tree behind the thicket of trees and shrubs. This black mass starts to rise and my first thought is, "oh shit, we just woke up a bear!". Only problem was this black mass kept rising and rising and rising. I froze, not knowing that I was seeing.

I knew there were no animals known to Central Oregon that were that big. I had no idea what to think. And that's when this black mass steps out from the thicket of trees and shrubs into full view. My eyes could not believe what I was seeing. Frozen in fear, hair standing up on the back of my neck, here was this huge dark brown bipedal creature that I would estimate to be maybe 2 feet taller than me. The head rested right on the body as if there was no neck at all. The shoulders on this thing had a massive width. And the arms seemed to be long, which would place the hands right around the knees. At the time I was experiencing mostly fear, but I know a small part of me was also amazed. I was seeing something that wasn't supposed to exist. I had heard about the legendary bigfoot and seen the Patterson footage. But I never thought much on the subject. When this creature stepped out, it was clear as day what I was witnessing and when I try to describe what I saw, this thing literally looked like the creature from the Patterson footage, except the hair seemed a bit shorter and cleaner. As this creature walked off into the woods, it never looked back. My friend and I only saw the back of this creature. I think it was possible we woke it up. In Shevlin Park there is a pond (the green dot in the photo) that was usually stocked with fish. I could only think that it might have come down in the night, had some fish, and decided to sleep a little longer than planned. As this creature walked off into the woods every step sounded like if you took a brick and threw it on the dirt and heard that thud. We watched this creature walk away for about 20 seconds until it was no longer in sight. This whole experience from it rising in the thicket to stepping out into view and walking off probably lasted around a minute. But during this encounter it felt like time almost stopped and my friend and I were frozen in fear for an hour. After the creature was no longer in view I turned to hear and all I could say was "what the heck was that!". She couldn't respond, still being confused about what she had just witnessed. We headed back to the car and when we both got in the car, I turned to hear and said, "I think we just saw bigfoot."

From that day nature has never been the same. I still have a huge passion for the outdoors but since that encounter, I always catch myself scanning the tree line or taking a moment to pause and listen, wondering if I would run into this creature again. I remember being excited to share the experience with my mom once she got home from work. First thing she asked me was if I had been smoking anything. She found the whole thing funny and she listened to my whole encounter but I could tell she did not believe me. It turned into a joke, a laughing matter, that to this day, I still get laughed at if I bring it up. It was the same way when I shared my encounter with my friends.

That was a huge blow realizing that nobody believed me. I realized that this was something that I couldn't just share with people. So I kept it locked away. I figured, although terrifying, what an awesome experience to get to see something that most people think doesn't even exist. I moved on with my life after that encounter figuring that was a once in a lifetime encounter. Odds of something like that happening again, yeah right. Which brings me to my second encounter.

Encounter #2

In Bend there wasn't much back to do on a weekend when I was in my early 20's. You could go to the bars, or find a house party, or take off into the woods and have yourself a nice bonfire party with friends. Those were very popular back in my day. Now I cannot remember the specific year this took place. Maybe 2004. It was summer. My group of guy friends and I were always looking for the next best place to have a bonfire party so we would cruise the forest roads, or even unmarked roads, looking for the perfect spot. In the photo I included you'll see the yellow dot is where we had found this perfect little cul de sac at the end of a dirt road. This was just south of Bend so it didn't take long to get there either. It was perfect and became our go to spot for just us guys. The cul de sac had a huge manzanita field growing next to it. In the photo you'll see the manzanita is the light green area and we were also nestled up next to the lava flow. However the end of this dirt road was lined with fresh pine trees that ranged in heights of just 1ft to around 20 ft. They basically created a wall to where you couldn't really see the field unless you pushed through the wall of trees to the other side.

So, one night my friends and I head out to our spot. It's a normal night of relaxing, having a very laid back time. At one point during the night, out of nowhere, we heard this scream/howl off in the distance. In the photo the red dot on the other side of the lava flow is where I would have guessed this sound came from. This scream/howl lasted for maybe 10 seconds. We all got real quiet wondering what that was. And of course, after the encounter I had a few years prior, I immediately said, "That is bigfoot!" I of course received plenty of laughter from my friends but I told them again, "I know it's crazy but that is legit a bigfoot. That's what they sound like." After my first encounter I dove into my research and listened to recordings of howls, read up what research was available at the time. They kept poking fun and eventually I just brushed it off. I was reminded that it didn't matter that I had an encounter. I knew they would never believe me anyways unless they experienced it for themselves. So I brushed it off and we continued through our night. Now I would guess around an hour and a half to maybe 2 hours later, there we are, chatting it up. It's nice and quiet. The fire is going strong. The sky is filled with stars. And then it happened...

Out of nowhere, the loudest scream, growl, howl, which seemed all combined into one poured into our little cul de sac area. It sounded like a monster. That's the only way I can put it. And whatever this thing was, was directly right behind the wall of trees. It had to have been maybe 15 to 20 feet from us. I'll never forget, when I play the event over in my head, the feeling I had in my chest. It's like I could feel this animal's growl/scream/howl inside my chest. It felt like I had been stunned. All I know is when this vocalization hit me, it knocked me over in my camping chair. My friend to the left of me also was knocked over. But my friends that had their backs to the wall of trees, they lunged forward out of their seats unbelievably fast. Myself and my friend who had also been knocked backwards in our chairs got up from the dirt at lightning speed. I think myself and my 4 friends were in my car, doors locked, in a matter of seconds. In the photo, as mentioned, the yellow dot was where our site was, and the red dot next to it, is where I believe this creature was. My friends and I sat in the car for over an hour debating on who was going to get out and put the fire out.

None of us wanted to exit the car after hearing this beastly roar. I could see in my friends faces they were scared, as was I. I kept thinking, that could only have been a bigfoot. But instead of hearing one of these vocalizations from far away like others have heard, we had front row seats. Only difference was that this creature sounded mad. The vocalization gave the feeling that this thing wanted us out of there. Eventually we all agreed to get out together and put the fire out. I had never seen my friends move so cautiously and on the ready for retreat in case this creature was still around. In the end, we got the fire out and left. And after that night, we never went back to that spot. The car ride back into town was quiet. I could tell none of us wanted to talk about what had just happened. And after that night, we didn't speak of it again. We all knew we experienced something that night that scared the toughness out of all of us. Almost like the feeling of being a little kid scared of a monster. And I hope to never hear a noise like that again in my life."