A very tall figure in Bonner County, Idaho

I imagine one could make up a Bigfoot story if they wanted to, but I doubt one could make up the scenario that led to my encounter. During the early 90’s, I wanted to live like Grizzly Adams, and I moved to a remote wilderness in Northern Idaho. To give an idea of how remote of an area this was, the forest service road just past our place was gated off to protect grizzly bears. Only a handful of people lived in this area, spread out over a dozen twenty-forty acre properties. Everything else was just extreme wilderness. The night of my encounter, meeting Bigfoot was the last thing on my mind and I must say I was confused by what I saw as well as being left utterly speechless. Although I had grown up in Northern California and was familiar with Bigfoot lore, I had pretty much filed it away as a neat story but not something to believe in. When you are broke and living on a mountain there is not much to do except get together with neighbors and have a good time, our lot was no different. I must add that during this time of my life drinking was not big on my list, and this evening was no different; however, it was Halloween and I had had some beer earlier in the evening between 5-8p.m. or so. Please remember though, that I was weighing in at 240lbs and the actual sighting was well into the night. Probably around 11:00p.m.—1:00a.m. the following morning. So anyway, my ex and I were at the Halloween party and had slipped into our normal silent argument routine, so needless to say we were not talking. One of the neighbors had arrived with a tractor pulling a trailer loaded with straw in hopes of taking everyone on a hayride. Eventually we left on the hayride, there were around sixteen of us evenly made up of adults and children of all ages, costumes and all. Upon leaving I don’t think we had a destination in mind, but someone eventually suggested we head to Blume Lake. A small mountain lake with rough access that would require leaving the tractor at the logging road, and walking the remaining ½ mile or so. As stated earlier my ex and I were giving each other the silent treatment and found ourselves drifting to the back of the two by two line. Eventually, we had allowed enough space to develop between us and the pack to lose sight of them as they went around bends in the trail. As we neared the lake, the trail forked in two directions, both led to the lake. My ex and I were just close enough to see the backside of the last person headed down the trail to the right. As we came to the fork I was closest to the center/fork while my ex was outside on the far right. Right as we approached the intersection I focused on a being crouched down at the base of a tree where the trails came together. This animal stayed put while I tried to figure out what I was seeing, it felt like total slow motion. I had a visual on the animal; I was staring right at it; however the animal did not seem to be interested eye contact. Just as we passed by and the animal was to my left behind me, I looked over my shoulder to see it rise silently next to the tree it had been crouching next to. Being 6’3” I would guess this being to be about 8 feet tall. Standing now, this animal still did not want eye contact and kept us in its peripheral vision. I looked forward and I could still see the back of the last person ahead of us. I wanted to yell out to everyone but figured it not the best thing to do. I doubt that I was close enough to touch it, but am quite sure he could have reached me without taking a step. I thought that I should say something to the ex, but I was speechless. I looked over my shoulder again to see this animal take a huge silent step out of the brush and then take only two or three more up the trail we had come down, before being out of sight. These steps were large, silent and punctuated with his long arms swinging with his strides. I spent many years wondering how no one else saw this and never told anyone from that night, except the ex, about it. I was familiar with forest wildlife and had viewed several species at length before this. I have always consoled myself by saying: I am not sure what I saw, but I do know what I didn’t see, and it wasn’t a bear, elk, mountain lion, moose or anything else I can think of. Even after this encounter I still thought most of the T.V. shows were jokes, but finding your site helps me realize I did see Bigfoot. This area of Bonner County, Idaho is very close to the encounter told of in the Pack River area. It is also close to the Clark Fork area encounters. Kind of between the two of them. I always wondered what Bigfoot thought about sixteen people coming down the trail at this time of night, costumes and all. This area is remote; sixteen people at any time would have been a shock. He must have been surprised!