After reading my post about a possible Bigfoot incident near Keystone Ski Resort in Summit County, Colorado, another witness comes forwards with her encounter near the same location.
I received the following account in response to my post Unknown Night Stalker Along Colorado Mountain Road:
"In the winter of 1983, at about 9:30 pm, while returning from ice skating, on foot across a frozen marsh, my friend and I came across something we could not identify as human or bear or otherwise. We were in Summit County, Colorado, near Keystone Ski Resort. The marsh is situated just south of Highway 6, between Keystone Village (hotel & shopping) and the base of the ski mountain. There was a dirt road through it, going from the lodge to the ski mountain, but no shuttle buses were on that road when this occurred.
As we descended the small slope, below Hwy 6, I saw what appeared to be a man walking parallel to a creek at the bottom of the marsh. There was no path there, so he was walking in snow in the uneven terrain of grass and shrub clumps there.
At the bottom of the slope, there was a small bridge over the creek. I saw him cross the road, and then, I did not see him. When we reached the bridge, to my right, there was a creature covered with snow and initially crouched on all fours beside the semi-frozen creek that ran through the marsh. The creek was always partially running due to warm water runoff at that ski area. The creature had its face to the water and appeared to be drinking from it, not using its hand to scoop water. I thought he might be vomiting, but there were no sounds of retching.
I first believed it to be a drunk person on holiday at the resort and thought we better see if we could get "him" to a warm place so he would not freeze to death, if he passed out. (It was probably about 5 or 10 Fahrenheit degrees that night).
I began asking, “Are you okay? Do you need some help?” and Laura was asking similar things. Whatever it was, it stood up, like a person. It approached us on its two legs with the "hands" raised in the air. It made moaning sounds, but did not articulate any words. In the light reflected from all the snow around us and a distant well-lit shuttle stop, neither my friend nor I could tell if it was a human or a bear or some other creature, even from a distance of about 10 feet. Laura was probably 5 feet from it at the closest point.
It had hair on its face and head and was just covered in white globs of snow and thus appeared to be grayish-white in color. It kept coming towards us, but did not reach out or grab one of us, though it was near enough to my friend to do so, since it was about 5 feet from my friend, at its closest to us.
It was standing beside the road, initially, so we were on the raised road, about a foot higher than the ground on which it stood. It arced around us to my right, and we turned to continue facing it. It eventually was standing in the middle of the road where we had just come through.
I could not tell if it was an animal all of one color or if it was in a one-piece monotone ski suit, nor could I discern shoes, gloves, hat or boots! I saw no reflection of zippers, if it was a suit. It looked to be between 6 and 7 feet tall when standing on the road. Its movements were awkward, not fluid, but stiff legged. I did not see the elongated muzzle/snout of a bear, which made me doubt it was a bear. I could see a human face surrounded by hair.
After several rounds of trying to ask it if it needed help, and receiving moaning grunts, and three rounds with my friend, saying, "What is it?" and one of us saying, "I don't know!," we decided to run away! I started running, but went back to grab Laura, to get her feet moving. It stood there staring at us. I turned to look back several times, but the creature had only stepped forward a few feet. It did not run after us, but stood there looking at us. We crossed the bridge, heading south. It remained on the north side of the bridge.
The next day, I went to look for human or animal tracks in the snow, but did not find anything discernible as a shoe print or an animal paw print. The snow was clearly disturbed where this thing had been on all fours by the creek, but there was nothing else there.
To this day, I still do not know what it was and there were no reports of drunken lost holiday revelers, so if it was human, it made it home okay. Also, it had not smelled of alcohol.
Prior to that, I had never heard of Bigfoot reports in the mountains of Colorado, but I did wonder if this is what we saw. In the 1990's, there were reports of Bigfoot sightings in the mountains near Colorado Springs, but that is some 100 miles from where we were. Now, the Bigfoot hotspot of Colorado is near Bailey, which sits on the other side of the Keystone ski mountain, south of where we were.
At any rate, we did not cross that marsh again at night with fewer than four other people! No one else we knew ever ran across it. To this day, neither of us is sure what we saw there.
I submitted a report to BFRO, but I never was contacted by anyone there. This is info I included in my report to BFRO.
It was about 9:30 at night. There was ambient light reflecting off the snow, especially from the bright lights of a shuttle stop about 50-70 yards away to our southeast. The marsh, however, had no street lights or any buildings in it.
I have not been back to this area since 1983. At that time, when we walked to the eastern-most edge of the ice skating outdoor pond at Keystone Village, it gave way to a road that ran between the ski mountain and the village. The road was used by shuttle buses, but was only wide enough for one at a time, I think. The road ran east into the marsh area, snaking around a little bit. Just before arriving at the ski mountain shuttle area, the road crossed a little bridge over the creek. I had seen it walking westward along the creek when we were up on the slope heading down to the creek. When we initially saw the creature, it was about 15 feet to the west of the bridge on the north side of the creek.
The marsh area is an open grassy area. To the north of it is Highway 6, but the marsh was somewhat hidden from the road by tall pines along the road. The marsh ran 250-300 yards east to west and was 50-100 yards wide north to south. I think it is a watershed. The creek was more on the southern side of the marsh. It was not always solidly frozen. I think some warm water draining from the ski area kept the creek thawed, even in normally freezing temperatures.
On the west end of the marsh was Keystone Village (hotel & shopping). To the east, was marsh then buildings related to the ski area. Directly south was the ski mountain and brightly lit shuttle stop, but to the southwest, the marsh met up with the subalpine slopes of the mountainsides. There was no development there, at the time, for some distance. The noteworthy things for me, were that it did not smell of alcohol, so I don't think it was a drunk skier. I did not see a protruding snout, so I don't think it was a bear. It was all one color, if it was human, it was wearing all gray-white clothing with no markings, zippers or normal winter accessories--gloves, hat, boots. But I did not see toes, if it was barefoot.
I was frightened and wonder if this has made for poor observation on my part.
The ski area had many bears, because I often heard tales of folks running into them, especially in the warmer months. Most stories, however, had to do with humans running across them at the dumpsters associated with restaurants around the ski area and on the ski mountain--at the lodge up on top.
Also, as a child, my family camped at Lake Dillon often in the summer--we spent most summers camping all over the West and Canada. I do not remember any visits from bears at Dillon Lake.
At any rate, I have not heard of any encounters with something like this. I did look at the BFRO website and saw that someone saw something like this in the 1960's, so I thought I should report this one." H
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