Washington Witness Recounts Two Chilling Bigfoot Encounters

Posted Wednesday, September 23, 2026

By Squatchable.com staff

A witness account out of Washington State is making the rounds, and it's the kind of story that sticks with you. A man named Steve Pavlik shared his experiences from 2009, detailing not one, but two separate encounters with what he firmly believes was Sasquatch, all from the same property on the Lummi Reservation just outside of Bellingham. The setting alone is enough to raise the hair on the back of your neck. Pavlik was renting a house along Haxton Way, with roughly 100 yards of thick, dense woods directly behind it, and Lummi Bay beyond that. For anyone familiar with the Pacific Northwest, that's prime Sasquatch territory. The Lummi Nation has a long history with these creatures, and the area is well-known among researchers for ongoing reports. The first incident went down in the early morning hours of September 23rd, 2009. Pavlik was loading his travel bags into his truck around 3:30 to 4:00 AM, prepping for a flight out of Bellingham International to give a talk at Fort Lewis College in Durango, Colorado. It was pitch black, cold, and crisp, the kind of stillness where every sound carries. Then, out of nowhere, a piercing cry shattered the silence. Pavlik estimated it came from no more than 50 yards into the woods behind his house. The vocalization lasted about five seconds, paused briefly, and then repeated identically. Every dog within a mile radius responded, filling the morning air with barks and howls. Pavlik turned off his porch lights and sat in the dark for 15 minutes, hoping to hear it again, but the forest went silent. What really makes this account stand out is how Pavlik described the sound. He ruled out every local animal and bird he could think of, and the closest comparison he could draw was the howler monkeys of South America. That kind of deep, drawn-out, almost otherworldly cry is something witnesses across the country have described for decades, and it lines up with what's often called "Sierra sounds" in the research community. Less than a week later, on September 27th, Sasquatch apparently came back for round two. Pavlik had spent the morning pheasant hunting at nearby Lake Terrell and returned home around noon with two roosters. He set up at a small clearing about 20 feet from the tree line to clean his birds, with his Labrador retriever Robin lying nearby chewing on a pheasant wing. Without warning, a large tree, roughly 10 inches in diameter, began swinging violently from side to side. Branches and leaves came crashing down, and Pavlik could hear the loud cracking of wood, like something was snapping branches over its knee and slamming them into the ground. The dog leaped to his feet, stared intently into the brush, and cautiously backed toward the house. Pavlik grabbed his skinning knife, but quickly decided that wasn't going to do him much good against whatever was making all that noise. He retreated to the porch, where Robin was already waiting. What makes the second encounter especially chilling is the silence. Unlike the first visit, where the creature let loose with that haunting cry, this time there were no vocalizations at all. Just raw, physical display. Tree shaking, branch breaking, a clear message: stay out. Pavlik noted something interesting in his account. Bear sightings on the Lummi Reservation are far less frequent than Sasquatch sightings. That tracks with patterns reported across many parts of the country, especially in the Southeast and certain regions of the Pacific Northwest, where witness encounters with these creatures vastly outnumber black bear sightings. Researchers have pointed to this disparity for years as one of many data points that doesn't fit the mainstream narrative. The LoveLeigh Adventures channel recently dove into Pavlik's full written account, and their reaction adds a fun layer to the story. They pointed out how the dogs going crazy probably didn't do the witness any favors with the neighbors, and they couldn't help but wonder if Pavlik ever sold that house afterward. Honestly, fair question. After something like that, who could blame him? The full video is worth a watch for anyone who enjoys a well-documented two-part encounter with all the classic elements: close-range vocalizations, physical evidence in the form of damaged trees, a dog that clearly knew something wasn't right, and a witness who did his homework ruling out conventional explanations before landing on Sasquatch. Pacific Northwest sightings continue to be some of the most consistent and compelling in the field, and accounts like this one from the Lummi Reservation are a big reason why.