I grew up, and still live on Storm Mountain just outside of Estes Park Colorado. When I was a kid, there was an old timer who talked of a Bigfoot sighting on the mountain. He claimed he and a few other guys watched it as it sat on a boulder 300 feet from them for 45 minutes. He also claimed they got hair and poop samples and sent them off to a government authority. They never heard back. Most people thought he was a crazy old man. I'm starting to wonder though.
In May of 2019, a Bigfoot was sighted on Storm Mountain. Pictures were taken and the BFRO did a report on it. The people had pictures and everything. Anytime something like this happens, people have their doubts. However, I know something others don't, and I've never told anyone until now.
First, let me tell you, growing up on Storm Mountain, I basically had the mountain to myself. I hiked with my dog all over the place. If I wasn't doing that, I was on my horse covering even more ground. If I wasn't doing that, I was on my dirt bike going even deeper into the back country. I've run across every wild animal in the Rocky Mountains, with the exception of a wolverine. I never saw one of those. I've been face to face with bear and even mountain lion. I've never been worried about any of that. It's common place when you live your entire life in the secluded part of the mountains.
When I was 13 years old though, I had an experience that still haunts me today. I'll cut to the chase, I didn't see or hear a damn thing. However, the hair on the back of my neck stood up. I was freaked out and got the hell out of that area as fast as I could.
I was riding my dirt bike and I decided to ride this game trail that I knew went really far and really high. I reached a point where all of a sudden, things seamed lifeless. I don't mean the trees were dead or anything like that. In truth, I don't know what I mean. I shut off my bike to get a sense of what was happening. I sat there for a couple minutes and realized it was dead silent. No wind, no birds, no nothing. Just dead silence. That's not what got me though. There was just a feeling I had. I can't even describe it. All I know is that I needed to get the hell out of there as fast as possible.
The area I'm talking about is only a mile from where the most recent Bigfoot sighting was at. I've been back to that area dozens and dozens of times since over the years. I'm now 50 by the way. I've never had a problem since.
In 2016 though, another thing happened. Allow me to set this up for you. I'm in my late 40's at the time. I am now an expert enduro rider and racer. My style of riding is finding the hardest and most remote single track possible in the mountains. One of my favorites just happens to be what was once a deer trail when I was kid. It is now a formal forest service approved piece of single track. Yes, it's the one I rode when I was a kid.
I've ridden this piece of very tricky single track more times than I can count over the years. I've had bear, mountain lion, bobcat, moose, and every other animal you can think of run out in front of me a number of times. At times I've had some really close calls.
On this particular ride, I was with a friend. He was behind me about 500 yards. As I entered a small meadow opening, something ran in front of me. Riding at a fast pace on difficult terrain, my eyes were looking only 10 or 15 feet out front. When I caught it out of the top of my peripheral vision, I immediately stopped, killed the bike, and ripped off my goggles. This took all of 5 seconds. I sat there for a good 30 seconds and there wasn't a sound.
Whatever ran across the 100' wide meadow was dark, big, tall, and quick. Now, like I've said: I've had almost every animal run out in front of me. What freaked me out was, whatever this was, it made it to the thick tree line and didn't make a sound. I didn't hear one twig crunch in those woods. There is NO WAY that is possible. This thing was way to big not to be making at least a little noise. There is also no way it could move at the same pace it ran across the meadow in those thick woods.
It only took a minute before I slapped my goggles back on, fired up my bike, and tore out of there with the hair standing up on the back of my neck again. Twice is 30 some years I got that feeling.
I'm not saying it was Bigfoot. I honestly don't know what it was. I remember a big black bear ran across a meadow like that on me a couple years earlier. He darted into a not so thick tree line and hid behind a little bush about half his size. Eventually he ran off, but before he did, he was making all kinds of noise stepping on twigs, huffling and puffing. I don't know, maybe this was a bear, a really big bear! I only know two things for a fact:
1. I don't get freaked out like that
2. The incident happened just 2 miles from the most recent Bigfoot sighting
I realize the idea of Bigfoot might sound crazy to you. You might be thinking, if he existed, certainly someone would have caught one or killed one by now. Think about this though: Did you know there are around 450 airplane crashes we know for sure happened somewhere in the mountains in the U.S. that have yet to be found? If a gigantic, silver, man made contraption, with a black box, and human beings in it can go missing FOREVER, I would imagine a creature with some intelligence, that can blend into the environment, who's on the move, could stay hidden as well. Just my 2 cents.