An account in Skagit County, Washington

This sighting happened on a summer vacation trip with my mother who is now deceased. The trip was July 1973 outside of Marblemount Washington State. We were staying at a camp called Jim Clark’s Dude Ranch (no longer in business). The facility had cabins, and activities, one of which was horseback riding on their fenced in property; I don’t recall how long the ride should have taken. We were assured the horses knew where to go so we would not get lost! I believe we left around in the morning, just my mother and I. The surrounding woods and property consisted of Alders, Evergreens, local trees and lots of underbrush, berry brambles and a barbed wire fence which was 4 or 5 feet tall, 3 strands It was a clear, sunny day, no clouds and no wind. I could hear the river and birds chirping. The horses were walking along the well-worn trail until we came around a small bend that followed the property line, and then the horses stopped, fast! We were questioning what the heck was going on as the horses would not respond to any of our urging them to go. One horse made a chortle sound and the other responded then stopped making any noise, looked to the left and stared off into the distance. The only sound you could hear was the river, there were no birds chirping anymore. Within a couple of seconds I heard a crack which sounded like a tree branch snapped and simultaneously the horses (still looking left) looked a bit right and through the underbrush I could see the back of a tall being (Bigfoot) that stepped out and moved a tree aside to continue through the woods. All I saw was brownish reddish hair and the creature had its right hand on the tree then put its left hand up and moved another tree and then you could not see it anymore, it was gone. I saw the back of this creature which was at least 5 feet above the top wire of the fence! The horses waited probably a minute but it felt longer and then they galloped all the way back to the barn. Mr. Clark said that we got back fast and in a hurry, my mother just said yeah, she wanted to get to fishing. She would not talk about it, ever. I never forgot it and did not know what it was at that time!