Sasquatch

Michael and I have some unique, "It's-a-long-story" connections as to how we met.

The short story is that I set Michael up with one of my freshman hallmates.

The long story is that I met one of Michael's favorite mission companions while I was dating another guy. (Michael was still on his mission, I think.) We all drove up to the mountains one weekend to look for a kid who got lost in the woods and on the way, (Elder) Weaver found out I was from the Pasco area and asked if I knew Ds. I knew Britney and Angie, and I knew of Michael, but we went to different schools and were in different wards, and so I only knew them from Girls Camp, really, but I thought they were cool. (In fact, I thought Britney was so cool that I permed my hair my senior year because I liked her hair so much. Ha!) Anyway, so Weaver told me a little about Elder D, especially about how he knew real-life Sasquatch stories. He was so enthusiastic about it that that's most of what I remember about that conversation.

In second semester, one of my friends from my freshmen hall had to do a folklore project and she chose to do it about Sasquatch/Big Foot. We were talking about it and I just had this flash of remembering, "OH! I know a guy who has some Sasquatch stories that he claims really happened. Well, really, I don't know him, but I know his sister and could get a hold of him for you." She said that would be great, so I emailed Britney and asked if her brother could meet with my hallmate for an interview sometime, and they set it up from there.

After the "interview" (ahem . . . date!), my friend said it went really well, and "Oh, he's really cool. I think I might like to go out with him." About the same time, Britney emailed me to feel out the situation, because apparently Michael felt the same way. I, being oblivious to what I was missing, told her to tell him to go for it. Luckily for me, it was almost the summer, so I think they only got one or two dates in before we all went home for the summer.

Then Britney introduced me to Michael, the famous "Sasquatch guy," at the single's ward, and it was all downhill (mostly) from there. :)

This weekend we went camping at Mt. Rainier, Sasquatch's home turf. When Michael tells the stories of Sasquatch, he has a particular Sasquatch call he can make. Kind of a horrible sound in the woods, especially at night, but also during the day if you're a five-year-old girl and the sound is coming from behind your campsite. Ha. Mom was walking past this other campsite and the mom at that site said, "What WAS that?!" Mom had to claim him, so she said, "It's my son!" And then shouted out to the trees, "Michael, CUT IT OUT!" Hahaha. Woops.

We took a day to go to Paradise. Unfortunately, it was pretty cloudy, so no seeing the top of Mt. Rainier. But we also went to the Grove of the Patriarchs and could see the top of the trees.

tree roots

Michael found a Sasquatch track.

Driving down, we saw this amazing waterfall across the valley. It goes all the way down the mountain!

Also stopped by the Blue Hole. Next time, we are jumping in. (And by "we," I mean Michael.) :)

Michael walking like Sasquatch towards Mom on the hike to Silver Falls.

Silver Falls