DATE:   1978

TIME:     Afternoon

LOCATION: Logging road east of McKenzie Bridge,
                Lane County, Oregon Hwy 126
 

TERRAIN:   National Forrest
 

OBSERVED:
On a hot summer afternoon in 1978 a young gal and I went on a drive up the Mckenzie River Valley.  We had cruised up a logging road and parked and were fooling around on a blanket. In the middle of this I suddenly had the overwhelming feeling of being watched. We stopped our activity and noticed that the forest seemed too quiet and she noticed that the hair on my neck was raised. I said,"we're getting out of here" and we piled, naked into her Mercury Capri. We drove futher up the logging road and it soon became a series of switch backs up the side of a ridge, ( Foley Ridge?) I pulled over at the top so I could dress. While I was dressing she, who had dressed as I was driving, walked over to the edge of the road where she gazed down on the valley from which we had just come up. She called out to me to come look at the bears which were crossing a clearcut at the bottom of the ridge.I finished dressing and by the time I got to her the bears had crossed the clear cut and vanished into the forest. She mentioned that the bears had crossed the clear cut on their hind legs. Bears don't cross clear cuts on their hind legs. The clear cut was several hundred yards wide and would take me 15-20 minutes to cross as it's very rugged and covered in slash, (piles of tree brances and undergrowth left by the loggers). I noticed that on one end of the clear cut was the logging road and clearing in which we had been pulled off, fooling around. She had seen the "bears" crossing from that end of the clear cut to the other side.....I don't think they were bears.

ACTIVITIES OF WITNESSES: Fooling around on a blanket

DESCRIPTION OF CREATURE: Given the distance; 800 yds? these creatures, (there were two) had to be pretty darn big for her to see., There's been a number of sightings up the McKenzie valley over the years.

OTHER NOTES:
 

OTHER SIGHTINGS IN THIS AREA: