Hi Steve 

I absolutely love your channel and your support as well as messaging on this topic.  It is fantastic that you are giving people a vehicle to share their experiences and get the truth out there.  The reality is this, there is definitely something out there and I cannot explain what I saw as an 8 year old child in the late 70's but it forever has creeped me out about being in the woods.  I have friends that are avid hunters here in BC  and I think you may know some of my friends. When they head out I am always "yay, good for you" but left feeling uneasy.

Here is my story!

When I was 7-8 years old my parents divorced and my dad ended up building my parents dream home deep in the woods of Ft. Assiniboine, Alberta.  (Near Swan Hills, AB ).  My mom and I lived in Barrhead, about an hour or so away.  The dream home was in the woods, the deck was built onto a large hillside with forest all around.  The main living area of the house  faced the hill and the Assiniboine River which had beautiful views .  This side of the house was all glass.  It was the main floor where decks circled around the house and  on this level the  kitchen, living room and my bedroom were located.   This detail is important so bear with the floor plan LOL.

We used to visit my dad every second weekend or so as part of the divorce agreement and this was a late fall weekend visit.  My dad was told that there were a number of grizzly bears in the area recently.  We had horses as well as chickens on this property.  We always woke up to bear tracks on the lower driveway and yard so we were fairly bear aware and cautious.     Here is the encounter.  It was about 11:30 at night, everyone had gone to bed.  I remember hearing CTV news on at 11 then I fell asleep.   A short while later I could hear very loud banging, thumping and the rustling of trees at the front room large glass windows.  The banging got louder and so I got out of bed.  I kid you not, the next part sounds like a movie but it was very real, I assure you.  

 I went down the hall and I was about 15 feet or so back from the large open concept living room and I could see something very large and hunched over on the deck at the window.  My dad has his bedroom in an open loft area above the living room and he came out onto the balcony above the living room . He hit the lights to light up the area on the balcony and I swear to God Steve, what stood up from a crouched position was not a bear.  It just wasn't   I know what a bear looks like and this was no bear.  It was very, very tall, covered in hair but did not have bear paws when it stood and balanced just like a human.   My dad started yelling for me to get back to my room and when I looked up at him he had a shotgun pointed at the  very large floor to ceiling window and was prepared to blow that window out to shoot whatever was on the deck.   That was no bear.  As a child remembering this, I thought it was a gorilla honestly because in a kid's mind, that was my point of reference.   All of this happened so fast, no shots were fired because the creature was over the railing and up the hill to the ridge so fast it made your head spin.  A bear could not have done that either.   The railing was fairly flush with the hillside, we used to climb over it all the time to get onto the deck with about a three foot drop to the deck. 

The next day my dad was very agitated.  I kept asking what that was and he was pretty pissed off at me for persisting.  He kept saying bear to me  but he was on the phone, it was an early Saturday morning talking to friends around the property and in town about what was on the deck the night before.  Even he had no idea for sure but did drop the sasquatch word.  The rest of that day we had his buddies on the property looking for footprints, walking up the ridge from the deck and driving the roads around us with shotguns.  The driving around with guns was pretty typical for a late 70's afternoon in Alberta LOL. You remember the pick ups with the rifle racks in the back window!  There was a lot of talk during this time that many farmers in the area had seen a "big foot". 

People said it was probably a sasquatch.  I had never heard of this before and my dad said not to talk about it.  My mom said it was kooky to think it was anything other than a bear.  I was kind of made fun of as a kid for sharing the story so I stopped.  As I got older I thought that these creatures didn't exist in Alberta so it was probably a bear.  As I hear your stories, it brings the memories back and people are 1000% correct, once you see one, there is no going back, even for a young kid who was only turning 8.  It was very profound.   I wonder about this encounter because the house was fairly new in that part of the woods and it was one of the first times I had been there so maybe the sound of little girls running and playing in the woods drew the creature out?  We were also throwing rotten chicken eggs at trees further up the ridge as well, we got in supreme shit for that too but maybe that smell along with the laughing drew it out.  I have no idea.

That's my story, share my name if it helps.  If I ever saw one again I would run as fast as I could.  Can you pee your pants while you are running LOL! 

Thank you for all you do.  
Cheers Michele Matheson