Hunter Claims He Saw Bigfoot Near Spuzzum

Until two weeks ago, Mike McDonald didn’t believe in Bigfoot.

That was, he says, before he saw one of the legendary creatures while hunting near Spuzzum, a tiny community two hours east of Vancouver.

“I don’t even know where to start,’ McDonald, 33, nervously told the crowd gathered Sunday at the fifth annual International Sasquatch Symposium.

McDonald was hunting brown bear and believing he had found one, set the sights of his gun on it.

The creature had its back to McDonald, so he watched through the gun sight for the bear to turn around and give him a good shot.

“Six or 10 seconds later it stood up, and it was definitely not a bear,” he said. “My heart started pounding. I was so scared.”

He waited until the creature left, then ran to his truck for his camera. When he returned, the creature was nowhere to be found.

Until Sunday, only his girlfriend has heard the story.

“I thought, who do I contact?” he recalled. “Do I call the police? No, they’re going to call me a nut. I would have thought that before, too.”

The atmosphere of the symposium didn’t put McDonald, an Abbotsford mill worker and former corrections officer, at ease.

“There are some strange people here,” he said, after his speech.

Sasquatch enthusiasts discussed everything from a link between the giant ape-like creatures and UFOs to their telepathic abilities at the weekend convention at the H.R. MacMillan Planetarium.

The walls and lectern were plastered with ads for Kokanee Beer, which sponsored the symposium. Each time a new speaker took the stage, a lucky raffle winner received a T-shirt from Kokanee, whose advertisements feature a beer-swilling sasquatch.

Organizer Stephen Harvey said the convention enjoyed its busiest year yet, in part because it moved to Vancouver from Harrison Hot Springs this year, and in part due to a resurgence of interest in the paranormal.

More than 300 people attended symposium sessions.