A recent sasquatch sighting near Grand Mound, investigated by the Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization (BFRO), may have been debunked by a Rochester cross country and track athlete.
The supposed sighting was reported in South Thurston County and was featured in an article in The Chronicle on Saturday.
According to the sighting's report, one witness was riding motorcycles with his friend and his 3-and-a-half-year-old son on Feb. 4 when the group spotted something running across a ridgetop about a half mile away.
"It was very large and human-shaped," the man's report to the BFRO said. "There was one color, tan/brown, moving across very rugged terrain, making a beeline for the tree line."
The three watched the figure for 30 seconds before it went out of sight.
"It moved so fluently with little arm movement, unlike a human running," the witness said. "It easily was 10 feet tall for us to be able to see it from so far away."
After The Chronicle’s article reached thousands of people and was shared hundreds of time on social media, The Chronicle received an email from Rochester High School student and cross country runner Gunnar Morgan.
"That sasquatch running was me," Morgan said in his email.
While Morgan does not appear to be a large, hairy bipedal animal in the photos that The Chronicle has taken of him during Rochester cross country meets, the high schooler explained the case of the mistaken identity.
"My cousin and I are adept cross country runners and live in the area and run often in that exact wilderness area (the report occurred in)," Morgan explained. "The reason we appeared larger than usual is because we were running side-by-side, and we run extremely fluidly compared to most people."
Morgan has a Garmin device that does running reports with a GPS. It tracked that Morgan was running on the ridge line with his cousin at the same time that the sighting occurred.
"We were running fast and headed for a tree line," Morgan said. "I can pinpoint exactly where the motorcyclists must've spotted us and where we must've been … I stand 6-foot-1, and from a distance, we could be mistaken for a larger creature."
Despite running in the state of Washington, which has the highest number of "credible" sasquatch sightings at 708, Morgan said he has never seen a sasquatch while running.
"I think this story is all very funny," Morgan added.
Learn more about the BFRO at https://www.bfro.net/.
