SASQUATCH!

Fact or fiction — hummm... you decide

- BRAD BRISBINE

My friend Gordy, a biologist, has turned his attention from freshwater dolphins to grizzly bears. He hopes to observe them in the North Cascades.

Knowing that I’ve backpacked the Cascades for nearly 50 years, he asked me and my brother Jim, a seasoned North Cascades climber, if we’d seen any.

My experience with bears is limited to a charging, roaring, slashing black bear at our campsite — not that unusual.

Jim reported having seen many black bears of varying color, but said that encountering. a grizzly bear in the Washington Cascades is about as likely as spotting Sasquatch.

Sasquatch, yeti, bigfoot, abominable snowman, whatever you want to call it, there have been reported sightings from around the globe.

Professional biologists typically don’t believe in their existence, due to lack of hard evidence. This piqued my interest, and I realized that I had been on the fence. It would take convincing evidence to get me off that fence.

Since childhood I’ve carried the memory of a grainy photographic image of a lanky, furry ape-like creature, stealthily on the move, glancing at a perceived threat; presumably man.