Gord Johnson of Cranbrook has made it an incredible double. He not only saw a sasquatch but a short while later he was able to also find tracks made by one.
Possible Sasquatch Sighting
B.C. man see ‘the beast’
CRANBROOK, B.C. — A Cranbrook resident says he was just beginning his early-morning shift as a sand truck/snowplow driver for a highways maintenance contractor when he saw what he now calls “the beast.”
Gord Johnson says he was barely out of the Cranbrook city limits, heading west, when his headlights illuminated what he thought was a human figure some 150 metres away.
“It was standing in the ditch on the right side of the road, sort of bent over. It was dark and cold and too early in the morning for anybody to be out picking bottles or something, so I thought whoever it was might be hurt or sick, so I slowed down.”
As Johnson drew nearer, the figure in the ditch straightened, then turned and began to move towards his truck while remaining in the ditch.
As the distance closed the snowplough driver was now better able to see that this individual was oddly shaped; very large with arms that reached nearly to its knees, a conical head and what he had initially thought to be a light golden brown parka was instead hair.
The two-metre-plus figure walking towards him was covered in it, he says.
Johnson’s truck slowly passed the creature, allowing him to see it clearly through the passenger side window.
“It gives me goose-bumps right now just thinking about it. I must have been in shock because I drove on another couple hundred yards before I realized I had to turn the truck around and get another look at this beast, but by then it had disappeared.”
Johnson finished his shift and decided that because he had no proof, it would be in his best interests not to share the details of the encounter, lest he be ridiculed. The one person he did tell was his longtime partner Victoria Carter.
“Gord was very shaken by the incident. Just because of the way it affected him I knew he’d seen something — I knew he was telling the truth,” Carter said.
Nearly three months later, on Jan. 25, Johnson was again maintaining a road in the early morning when his truck ran out of sand. Finding a wide spot in the road he began turning his truck around so he could head back for another load to finish the job.
While backing up, he noticed a set of strange tracks in the newly fallen snow and decided to get out and investigate.
“As soon as I saw them I could tell they were made by something walking on only two legs — kind of offset. Right away my gut told me something wasn’t right. I took a couple shots with the disposable camera that I started carrying since the October incident.”
Johnson finished his shift, then wanting to show Carter what he considered possible proof of his previous encounter with a strange biped, returned to the spot with a better camera.
The pair then re-photographed the tracks, measured the distance between them (about 1.8 metres), and then followed them a short distance until they disappeared into dense brush.
With the light failing and the possibility that whatever had made the tracks might still be in the vicinity, the pair decided not to follow the mystery beast’s trail any further.– Edmonton Sun
Cranbrook lies in an area of the Kootenay Mountains which has a rich tradition of sasquatch sightings. Mr. Johnson has presented a very straightforward and believable account of his sighting and track find.
The effort he made in returning to the site of the tracks to rephotograph them says a lot about his diligience and keen sense of enquiry. Those of us in British Columbia will be following this up and will report our findings once they are complete.
It’s been awhile since there have been sightings around Cranbrook, but at least from Mr. Johnson’s sighting, we know there is at least one sasquatch who by its demeanour did not appear to be at all concerned about the proximity of Mr. Johnson and his truck. I would not be surprised if this particular sasquatch is seen again.
About John Kirk
One of the founders of the BCSCC, John Kirk has enjoyed a varied and exciting career path. Both a print and broadcast journalist, John Kirk has in recent years been at the forefront of much of the BCSCC’s expeditions, investigations and publishing. John has been particularly interested in the phenomenon of unknown aquatic cryptids around the world and is the author of In the Domain of the Lake Monsters (Key Porter Books, 1998).
In addition to his interest in freshwater cryptids, John has been keenly interested in investigating the possible existence of sasquatch and other bipedal hominids of the world, and in particular, the Yeren of China. John is also chairman of the Crypto Safari organization, which specializes in sending teams of investigators to remote parts of the world to search for animals as yet unidentified by science. John travelled with a Crypto Safari team to Cameroon and northern Republic of Congo to interview witnesses among the Baka pygmies and Bantu bushmen who have sighted a large unknown animal that bears more than a superficial resemblance to a dinosaur.
Since 1996, John Kirk has been editor and publisher of the BCSCC Quarterly which is the flagship publication of the BCSCC. In demand at conferences, seminars, lectures and on television and radio programs, John has spoken all over North America and has appeared in programs on NBC, ABC, CBS, PBS, TLC, Discovery, CBC, CTV and the BBC.
In his personal life John spends much time studying the histories of Scottish Clans and is himself the president of the Clan Kirk Society. John is also an avid soccer enthusiast and player.
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