Veteran Researcher Hosts Bigfoot Encounter Stories from Pacific Northwest

Posted Sunday, August 09, 2026

By Squatchable.com staff

There's something fascinating about hearing a trained scientist describe an encounter that completely derails their conventional understanding of the natural world. That's exactly what unfolds in a recent episode of the YouTube channel Creek Devil, hosted by veteran field researcher William Jevning, who has been investigating Sasquatch reports for over four decades. The episode features a guest named Wendell, a scientist who moved to the Seattle area with his wife back in 2011. Like many newcomers to the Pacific Northwest, they dove headfirst into the Sasquatch mystery, spending their free time exploring the remote stretches of the Cascades. What they found out there changed everything. Their first brush with the unknown happened off Deer Creek Road, a forest road that branches north off the Mountain Loop Highway near Granite Falls, Washington. For anyone familiar with Sasquatch activity in the region, Granite Falls is practically legendary. The area sits near the Three Fingers Mountain Complex and White Horse, both locations that have generated reports for decades. Wendell and his wife had only been out of their truck for a few minutes when a massive vocalization echoed off a nearby ridge line. The sound lasted 15 to 20 seconds and has been described by researchers as something between a lion's roar and a human scream. Other hikers who had just come off the trail heard it too and high-tailed it out of there, which says something about how unsettling the call was. Wendell and his wife have since had similar experiences in the Methow Valley, where a loud vocalization from a nearby ridge alarmed multiple campers at once. These weren't shy, subtle sounds. Whoever was making them wanted their presence known. The most compelling story Wendell shared took place in April 2016 during a camping trip that carried some heavy emotional weight. His wife had recently been diagnosed with breast cancer, and they wanted to get away from everything, to be together in the wilderness they loved. They picked a remote pulloff off a rough fire road, about seven or eight miles back from the Mountain Loop Highway, in an area near Sloan Peak that had been the subject of recent BFRO investigations. A local researcher had even scouted the location multiple times. After setting up camp and getting a fire going, the couple settled in for the evening. Around 10:30 p.m., from across the road in the dense blackness of the forest, they heard what Wendell described as a "Harry Belafonte" call. Within five seconds, a second shorter burst came from about a hundred yards to the right. Two distinct calls. Two distinct locations. Wendell stayed up all night burning everything he could find to keep the fire roaring, half hoping something would happen and half hoping it wouldn't, given how remote they were. Nothing else occurred that night, but the experience stuck with him. He even scattered twigs behind their tent site as a makeshift alarm system, noting how the old growth stumps and fresh deadfall in the area provided countless hiding spots for something that didn't want to be seen. What makes this interview worth your time is the way Wendell describes these encounters. He's not a thrill-seeker or a sensationalist. He's a scientist who went into this with a healthy skepticism and came out the other side with a very different perspective on what might be roaming the remote forests of Washington. His description of the vocalizations, particularly the back-and-forth exchange that night, aligns with what many long-time researchers have reported over the years. These aren't random sounds. They appear to be communicative. The Pacific Northwest has long been considered ground zero for Sasquatch activity, and the areas Wendell describes, the western slopes of the Cascades, the Three Fingers complex, the stretches between Darrington and Granite Falls, all fall within regions that have produced consistent reports for generations. Indigenous peoples of the region have their own longstanding traditions regarding these beings, long before any researcher set foot in the woods. Creek Devil is a channel worth following if you enjoy long-form interviews with witnesses and researchers. Jevning brings a calm, methodical approach to these conversations that lets the stories breathe. This particular episode runs through Wendell's various experiences and includes a Q&A session that touches on some interesting points about vocalizations and what scientists actually look for when investigating these reports. Definitely worth carving out some time to watch the full episode. The way Wendell talks about that night in April 2016, sitting by the fire with his wife, listening to those calls echo through the trees, it's the kind of story that stays with you.