I can't remember if I have shared this before... I usually don't, unless I know the people I'm talking with well.

It all started with a long canoe trip with my Dad, little brother Jim, the dog and myself. I was 12 years old and we'd just returned to Alaska and stopped at Lake Louise, which is outside Glennallen - roughly 200 miles East of Anchorage or so.

Our mission was to paddle the canoe 20 miles from Lake Louise into Lake Susitna and then into Lake Tyone where he'd heard there was property for sale.

We paddled for hours and hours... 20 miles is a hell of a long way to paddle and Jim and I were bored to tears.

We finally reached the old Lodge that was for sale, looked around a bit and saw an old Indian village ruins across the lake, so we went over to check it out and continue stretching our legs a bit.

Behind the ruins, there was a trail that appeared to be well used. It went up onto a low ridge and disappeared from view. Dad told me to take the dog, Bo, and go see if there were any more ruins up the trail, and Bo and I trotted up the trail.

It wound around for about 1/4 mile and then dropped down into a swamp. The trail was still pretty decent, so we kept going. The bushes on either side of the trail were higher than I was, so all I could see was the trail in front of us.

About halfway through the swamp, a very pungent musky odor hit me. Kind of like a skunk, but much more offensive... it was uniquely nasty and I'll never forget it.

Suddenly, Bo stopped in front of me and stared off into the brush to our right and he was quivering (like all smaller dogs will do when maxed out) and sniffing, listening intently. I skidded to a stop as well, and let him do his thing.

He quivered silently for 10 seconds or so, and I whispered "What is it, Bo?" and he tore off into the bushes yelping his pursuit bark. I tore off the other way at top speed, thinking it was a bear.

I could hear him yelping with every jump, and it was growing fainter so I knew I was moderately safe as I came up out of the swamp onto the ridge.

I skidded to a stop to look over where Bo was barking, and there it was.

It was about 8' or 9' tall, sprinting on two legs as Bo bit his heels with every step. And he was really moving, Bo was fast and was having trouble keeping up.

That's when I really hit the turbos - you're not supposed to see monsters. That's what you're told the whole time you're growing up, that they're not real. This one was.

So I came flying down the trail to the lake, and the Old Man saw me coming at Mach 4. He knew I was in trouble just because of the maximum speed was was moving at, and he raised his rifle to shoot whatever was coming behind me.

After a couple of minutes of gasping for breath, I told him what I'd seen. He kind of gave me that look out of the corner of his eye, immediately thinking that I'd seen a moose or a bear.

I took him back to the swamp to show him the tracks and to call for Bo. We made it over to where I'd seen the bigfoot running up out of the swamp onto the hill with Bo in pursuit, but there weren't any tracks.

Unfortunately, the swampy area he'd been in was filled with that black, nasty swampy soup which didn't hold any tracks, and where he'd exited the swamp onto the hill going out was covered in a thick layer of leaves. We saw the indentations of something big, but no shape.

We went back down to the canoe to wait for Bo. About an hour or 2 later, he returned, very pleased with himself for chasing away that thing from me. But man, did he stink. He stunk just like that bigfoot, which made sense since he'd been biting his heels for who knows how long.

We threw him in the lake about 20 times to try and alleviate the smell, but it didn't really help.

So we loaded into the canoe for the trip back, with the Old Man cursing because he was downwind in the back of the canoe from the dog, who was feeling pretty unappreciated after being tossed in the lake so many times and the Old Man cursing him with every breath. He REALLY stunk bad.

At the end of the day, we told Mom and the rest of my siblings what happened. No one had ever smelled that smell before. We got it reduced quite a bit using Dawn dishsoap.

The Old Man sat me down and told me not to ever talk about what happened. I didn't understand why, so he explained he didn't want our new neighbors thinking we were crazy.

Anyway, that's my story. And before anyone tells me it was a Moose or a Bear, consider the fact that it was SPRINTING up a hill on 2 legs with a dog biting his heels with every step.

There is no animal in North America of that size that runs away from anything on his hind legs, and I saw that crystal clear.

It looked exactly like the Patterson footage, and moved the same way that one did except mine was moving a lot faster.

I've smelled that smell twice now since that time as I've wandered around in the boonies of Alaska, but never saw it. But I knew it was close.

I can't explain why one hasn't been shot yet, I have no answer for that. Just telling what I saw with my own eyes, and if someone has a reasonable explanation I'd love to hear it.