Wednesday, June 22, 2016

Strange Times in Yakima




Sasquatch pin from my buddy Keenan
Sunday, September 30, 2015, riding home from The Dream Roll:
 
  The clouds part and the sun breaks through for the first time in 24 hour as we ride between the sea of rolling hills leading into Yakima, Washington. The chronic knot in my right shoulder slowly subsides as my body eases up under the sun’s warm rays, releasing all the tension from a morning of riding in the cool rain. I can only feel so annoyed with the weekend’s random rain and wind storm when over a million acres across Washington state are being consumed by treacherous flames burning hotter and farther than any fire in the state’s history. “This rain is a blessing,” I tell myself over and over. The continuous waves of hill after hill, burnt golden by the sun and spotted with shrubs and cows seem never ending yet still beautiful even in its redundancy. I ride this road along with Mandy in blissful relaxation wondering if I will ever spot some wildlife on this trip. Eyes roaming over the grassy edges of hill tops, I see a dark moving mass in the distance (but not too far off distance) that initially through the corner of my eye, I mistake as a bear due to its size and almost black coating. Upon direct gaze, I think- Oh, it’s just a person- being that it’s walking on two of its four limbs… Wait- what is a person, who must be remarkable in size for how large they seem at that distance, doing walking through hills with exceptional stride in the middle of NOWHERE ?… And why are they completely monochromatic as if covered in some sort of coat from head to toe? In what must have looked like panic to Danelle and Kate driving in their truck behind me, I shoot my head back a few times to catch another glimpse, though with none of my questions being answered but with all of my brain in bewilderment at the site of this mysterious creature, it quickly disappears behind me. For a moment I contemplate pulling over but realize there is no way of me safely notifying Mandy of this in time so I continue on. At the next gas stop with arms flailing and me probably half screaming, I tell them of my bizarre sighting. Could it be that with most of its home on fire, the fabled Sasquatch was flushed out from its cozy hiding spot in the wilderness right into plain sight? Into MY plain sight? Who knows. All I know is… I want to believe.




Somewhere around these parts is where the sighting happened