On July 14th, 1988, a 39-year-old tourist from Colorado named Mark Strauss registered at the entrance to Mount Baker National Park in Washington State.

He planned a two-day solo hike along the Skyline Divide Trail.

On July 17th, his car was still in the parking lot.

A search operation began on the 18th.

Two days later, one of the rangers reported by radio that he saw something on the mountain side, something large moving on two legs, dragging a person or a large object behind it.

The connection was interrupted for 11 seconds.

When it was restored, the ranger refused to talk.

Mark Strauss’s body was never found.

Ranger Joseph Keenan resigned 3 months later and left the state.

The case remains open.

Mark Strauss worked as an engineer for a construction company in Denver.

He had been living alone since his divorce 3 years earlier.

He was 39 years old.

He had been fond of hiking since his youth.

He went to the mountains regularly and knew how to behave in the wild.

He was novice.

In early July 1988, he took a week’s vacation.

He decided to go to Washington Shaberty.

He had always wanted to see the Cascade Mountains from the north.

He studied the maps and chose a route.

The Skyline Divide Trail in the Mount Baker area is a popular spot among hikers, but not overcrowded.

It is about 12 km one way with moderate elevation changes and picturesque views of glaciers.

Mark left Denver on July 11th in his 1996 Honda Accord sedan.

He drove for two days, stopping at motel for the night.

On the 13th, he arrived in Glacier, Washington, the closest town to the park.

He stopped at a local motel and spent the night.

On the morning of July 14th, he registered at the Ranger Station at the park entrance.

The procedure was standard.

Fill out a form with your details, indicate your route, an estimated date of return.

Mark wrote that he planned to return on the evening of July 16th.

The ranger at the station, a woman named Ellen, later recalled that Mark seemed calm and prepared.

He had good equipment, a backpack, tent, sleeping bag, and enough food and water.

Ellen asked if he was going alone.

Mark [music] said yes.

She reminded him of the safety rules.

Stay on the trail, stay away from bears, carry a whistle.

Mark nodded and said he was an experienced hiker.

Around a.m., he arrived at the parking lot at the trail head.

He parked his car and locked it.

He put on his backpack and set off on the trail.

This was the last time he was seen alive by other people.

The Skyline Divide Trail starts at an altitude of about 1,200 meters and climbs to 1,800 meters.

It passes through a mixed forest of fur, spruce, and cedar trees.

Further on, there are alpine meadows with flowers and a view of the Baker Glacier.

The weather in July is usually good, but changeable.

Rain or fog can suddenly roll in.

On July 14th, the weather was clear.

The temperature was around 18° in the shade, and it was sunny.

According to the weather service, this weather lasted all day.

Mark walked along the trail at his own pace.

Judging by subsequent findings, he walked about 6 to 7 km on the first day.

In the evening, he set up camp near a stream that crosses the trail about halfway along the route.

This is a typical place to spend the night.

There is water, a flat area, and shelter from the wind.

The next day, July 15th, he continued on his way.

The weather changed.

According to records from the weather station in Glacier, it began to drizzle around noon and fog rolled in.

Visibility dropped to 50 to 100 m.

On the evening of the 15th, Mark was supposed to reach the highest point of the trail, enjoy the view, and begin his descent.

He planned to return to his car on the 16th, but on the evening of the 16th, his car was still in the parking lot.

Ellen, the ranger who had registered him, finished her shift at in the evening.

She checked the log book.

Mark hadn’t signed out.

That doesn’t always mean there’s a problem.

Sometimes hikers get delayed and come out a day later, but Ellen made a note in the observation log anyway.

By noon on the 17th, Mark’s car was still in the parking lot.

Ellen contacted the park’s chief ranger.

He decided to launch a search operation on the morning of the 18th if Mark did not show up.

Mark did not show up.

On the morning of July 18th, the search party set out on the trail.

The team consisted of five rangers.

Brad Summers, the head of the operation, Joseph Keenan, an [music] experienced ranger, two junior rangers, Emily Jong and Robert Fiser, and a volunteer from the local search and rescue team named Greg.

They started at the beginning of the trail.

They looked for tracks, deviations from the route, any signs.

They covered the first 5 km.

Nothing unusual.

The trail was clear.

There were many tracks.

Other tourists also walk here.

By noon, they reached the stream where Mark was supposed to have stopped for the first night.

They found traces of a campfire, cold coals, trampled grass.

The place looked recently used.

Perhaps it was Mark’s camp, but it was impossible to say for sure.

Other hikers could have stopped there, too.

The group continued on.

Further on, the trail became steeper.

The forest thinned [music] out, and there were more rocks.

The fog was thick and there was a light rain.

Visibility was poor.

About a kilometer beyond the stream, Joseph Keenan noticed something on the ground.

He called the others over.

An object lay on the trail.

A strap loop from a backpack.

It was torn, ripped off with force.

The fabric was blue, synthetic.

Brad picked it up and examined it.

The strap was clearly from a modern hiking backpack.

There were signs of tension at the edge of the tear, as if it had been pulled with great force.

Nearby, a few meters from the trail, they found another item, a camera.

It was a Nikon film [music] camera, a model popular among tourists.

It was lying on the rocks.

The lens cracked, the body scratched.

They opened the back cover.

There was no film inside.

Either it had been removed or the camera had been empty to begin with.

But the scratches on the body suggested that the camera had been dropped or thrown away.

Brad contacted the base via radio.

He reported the findings.

He transmitted the coordinates.

Base confirmed.

Continued the search.

The group moved on.

They searched more carefully.

They checked bushes, rocks, and deviations from the trail.

After 200 m, Emily found another detail.

A piece of fabric hanging from a branch.

Blue thick material similar to a jacket.

The fabric was fresh, not faded by the sun.

Another 50 m further, Robert noticed tracks on the ground near the trail.

Not human, too big.

The prints were blurred due to the rocky soil, but the outlines were visible, about 40 cm long and 20 cm wide.

They were oval in shape with five protrusions at the front, like fingers.

But the arrangement was strange, not like a bear’s.

Brad photographed the tracks with his work camera.

He measured their dimensions.

He wrote them down in his notebook.

The tracks led away from the trail into the denser part of the forest.

The group followed them.

They walked slowly, looking around.

The tracks became less frequent.

The ground was rocky, the grass sparse.

After 100 meters, the tracks led to the edge of a small cliff.

It was about 3 m high with a rocky bottom below.

The tracks ended at the edge.

They climbed down.

At the bottom, they found more tracks.

The same large footprints running along the foot of the cliff.

The group followed them.

The tracks led to a dense stand of fur trees.

The trees grew so close together that it was difficult to pass between them.

Brad stopped the group.

He said it was dangerous to go further.

They could get lost in the thicket.

They decided to return to the trail and continue the search from there.

By the evening of the 18th, the group returned to base.

They reported their findings.

A backpack strap, a camera, a piece of fabric, strange tracks.

The chief ranger decided to expand the search operation.

The next day, more people and dogs were brought in.

On the morning of July 19th, two groups set out.

One group followed the trail further up to check the upper areas.

The second group went into the thicket where the tracks had been found.

Joseph Keenan joined the second group.

With him were three others, Robert, Greg, and a new volunteer named Peter.

They took ropes, whistles, and GPS navigators.

In 1988, GPS was not yet widely used, but the park service had several devices for such cases.

The group returned to the place where they had stopped the day before.

They began to make their way through the spruce forest.

The trees grew densely, the branches were [music] low, and they had to bend down.

It smelled of pine needles and dampness.

The ground was covered with moss and soft underfoot.

They walked about 200 m.

The forest opened up a little.

They came out onto a small clearing about 30 m in diameter with trampled ground and low grass.

In the center lay the fallen trunk of an old fur tree, half rotten.

Robert noticed something shiny on the ground near the trunk.

He came closer.

It was a piece of plastic.

He picked it up.

It was part of a flashlight casing, a broken camping flashlight.

Next to it lay a battery that had fallen out of the casing.

Peter found another thing, a metal mug, a tourist mug, aluminum with a carabiner.

It was dented, as if it had been hit or thrown [music] with force.

Joseph was examining the clearing.

Something caught his attention.

He walked to the far edge where the clearing turned back into forest.

There were marks on the ground, deep furrows, as if something heavy had been dragged.

The furrows led into the forest.

He called the others.

He showed them the furrows.

Greg crouched down and examined them.

He said, “Looks like something was dragged.

Something big and heavy.” The group followed the furrows.

They walked slowly, making their way through the bushes.

The furrows led up the slope.

The slope became steeper.

After 50 m, the furrows ended.

The ground became rocky, but there were tracks on the rocks.

The same large footprints they had seen before.

They continued upward.

Joseph contacted Brad by radio.

He reported that they had found a possible drag mark, that the tracks led up the mountain.

Brad replied, “Be careful.

Don’t split up.” The group continued.

They climbed for [music] about an hour.

The slope became steeper.

The trees became sparser.

They came to a rocky outcrop.

A stone wall 5 m high stretching to the left and right.

The tracks led to the base of the wall then disappeared.

Robert examined the wall.

He found a crack wide enough for a person to squeeze through.

He shown his flashlight inside.

The crack went deep into the rock about 3 m, then widened.

Greg suggested checking it out.

Robert and Peter stayed outside while Joseph and Greg climbed into the crack.

They crawled through.

Behind the crack was a small cave, more like a crevice between rocks.

3 m wide, 5 m long, about 2 m high.

It was damp and cold.

It smelled of earth and something else.

A heavy, unpleasant smell.

Not rot, but something organic.

Joseph shone his flashlight on the walls.

There were bones on the ground, small bones, animal bones, deer.

Judging by their size, several skulls, ribs, vertebrae.

Some bones were gnawed, others broken.

Greg found [music] something else.

In the corner of the cave lay an object, metal.

He picked it up.

It was a flask.

A tourist flask made of steel with an inscription on the side.

M.

[music] Strauss.

Joseph took the flask.

His heartbeat faster.

It was Markx.

They searched the cave further.

No other items, no traces of a body, only animal bones and a [music] flask.

Greg contacted Robert by radio.

He said they had found the missing tourist’s flask.

Robert passed the information on to Brad.

Joseph and Greg left the cave.

The group descended.

By evening, they were back at base.

Brad organized a third day of searching.

On July 20th, three groups [music] set out.

One to check the cave and the surrounding area in more detail.

The second group continued the search along the trail.

The third group surveyed the slopes of the mountain above the cave.

Joseph Keenan joined the third group.

With him were Robert and another ranger, a man named Harris.

Their task was to climb higher up the slope to check for any further traces or clues.

The group left around in the morning.

The weather was cloudy but dry.

The fog had partially cleared.

Visibility had improved to 200 m.

They climbed up to the cave, past it, and continued upward.

The slope was steep, and they had to cling to rocks and roots.

They climbed slowly.

After an hour, they reached [music] a small plateau, a flat area about 50 m long, covered with low grass and moss.

On one side, there was a view of the valley below.

The fog still lingered in the lowlands, but it was gradually rising.

Robert examined the ground.

He found another item, a piece of strap, the kind used to attach equipment to a backpack.

The strap was torn with visible signs of tearing at the edges.

Harris walked further along the plateau.

He stopped at the edge where the plateau dropped off into a slope.

He called the others over.

He pointed down about 30 m below.

On the rocky slope lay something dark.

Joseph took out [music] his binoculars.

He looked.

It was a backpack.

A blue hiking backpack lying on its side, partially torn.

The group descended to the backpack.

The descent took about 20 minutes.

The slope was steep and slippery.

They reached the [music] backpack.

They picked it up.

The backpack was badly damaged.

The straps were torn.

The side pocket was ripped.

And the zipper on the main compartment was broken.

There was almost nothing inside.

just an empty plastic bag and one dry ration.

All the rest of the food and equipment was gone.

There were strange marks on the outside of the backpack, scratches or cuts, long, deep, four parallel lines, like claws, but too deep for bear claws.

They cut through the fabric and damaged the plastic frame inside.

Joseph photographed the damage.

He contacted Brad on the radio.

He reported the discovery of the backpack.

Brad confirmed.

Mark the spot.

Continue the search.

The group continued to search the slope.

Robert found more fabric fibers on the bushes blue from the jacket.

Harris found a piece of a map, a tourist map of the park torn in half.

By noon, they had climbed higher to the ridge.

From there they could see the western slope, more gentle, covered with forest.

The border between the forest and the open slope was about 100 m below.

Joseph looked through his binoculars, scanning the area.

Suddenly, he saw movement.

Something dark was moving among the trees on the western slope.

He focused his binoculars.

The figure was large, very large.

It moved on two legs, but not like a human.

Its gate was different, more stooped.

Its arms were long, reaching almost to its knees.

Its body was covered with dark fur or hair, dense and massive.

Joseph froze.

The figure was carrying something.

It was dragging it along the ground behind it.

The object was long, about 2 m, wrapped in cloth [music] or not.

It was difficult to see from such a distance.

He grabbed the radio and pressed the transmit button.

His voice came over the airwaves.

Base, this is Kenan.

I see something on the western slope.

It’s moving.

It’s holding a person or a bag.

A large object.

The radio crackled.

Brad’s voice.

Keenan clarify.

What do you see? Joseph continued to look through his binoculars.

The figure was moving up the slope between the trees slowly but steadily.

It was dragging the object behind it, [music] dragging it along the ground.

It’s not a bear.

It’s walking on two legs.

It’s tall, 2 and 1/2 m, maybe more, dark.

It’s dragging something.

Robert and Harris moved closer.

Robert also looked through his binoculars, whispering, “My god, what is it?” The figure stopped, turned around as if it sensed it was being watched.

Even from a distance, Joseph could see that it had a massive head and broad shoulders.

Then it jerked sharply and disappeared into the thick forest.

Joseph released the button on the radio.

The connection was interrupted for a [music] few seconds.

The airwaves were silent except for a slight crackling of interference.

Then he pressed the button again, but he didn’t say anything.

Brad asked over the radio.

“Kenan, are you there? What’s going on?” Joseph turned off the radio.

He lowered his binoculars.

His face was pale.

His hands were shaking.

Robert asked, “Joe, what did we see?” Joseph didn’t answer.

He just shook his head.

The group descended back to base at around in the afternoon.

Brad met them at the trailer where the command post was located.

He immediately approached Joseph.

What did you see out there? Joseph was silent.

He looked away.

Brad repeated the question.

Joseph finally replied quietly, “I don’t know, something big.” Brad asked him to give an official explanation.

Joseph refused.

He said he couldn’t describe it accurately.

He couldn’t see well because of the distance and the fog.

Robert and Harris confirmed that they saw something dark and large moving on two legs, but they couldn’t say for sure what it was.

Robert suggested that it might have been a bear standing on its hind legs, but his voice sounded uncertain.

Brad recorded their statements.

He wrote in the official report, “Members of the search party reported seeing a large animal on the western slope, presumably a bear.

But in Brad’s personal notebook, which he kept unofficially, there was another entry.

Kenan is in shock.

Claims to have seen a figure at least 8 ft tall with arms dragging something large heading up the ridge.

Refuses to speak officially.

Robert and Harris confirm seeing something unusual.

The search continued for another 9 days.

A helicopter was brought in to comb the western slope from the air.

Nothing was found.

Team searched the forest in the area where the figure was seen.

No traces of a body, no new clues.

By July 30th, the search operation was officially called off.

Mark Strauss’s body was not found.

The police report stated accident or wild animal attack.

body presumably carried off by a predator.

Mark’s family was notified.

His ex-wife arrived from Colorado.

She took Mark’s personal belongings from the car.

Clothes, documents, wallet.

The items found in the forest.

A flask, a backpack, scraps of fabric were given to her later.

She asked what had happened to her husband.

Brad answered honestly, “We don’t know.

most likely a bear attack or a fall from a cliff.

The body had not been found, but that was not unusual in the mountains.

His ex-wife asked about the radio message.

She had heard from volunteers that one of the rangers had seen something strange.

Brad replied evasively.

In the mountains, people often see things that are difficult to explain.

The play of light and shadow, animals.

It was not worth paying attention to.

Joseph Keenan changed after that search operation.

His colleagues noticed that he had become withdrawn.

He hardly spoke.

He performed his duties at work, but mechanically.

He avoided patrols in the western part of the park.

In August 1988, one of the junior rangers, Emily, asked him directly what he had seen on the slope.

Joseph was silent for a long time.

Then he said, “You don’t want to know.

Trust me.” Emily insisted.

Joseph sighed and said, “It wasn’t an animal.

I mean, it was an animal, but not a normal one.

It moved like a human.

But it was bigger and stronger, and it knew I was looking at it.

It turned and looked at me.

I saw its face, even through my binoculars.

It wasn’t a bear’s face.

” Emily asked what the face looked like.

Joseph shook his head.

I can’t describe it.

Human, but not human.

Flat, broad, big, dark eyes.

And it understood.

I could feel it.

It knew what it was doing.

In October, Joseph handed in his resignation.

He said he had found another job outside the state.

Brad tried to persuade him to stay.

Joseph was an experienced ranger, knew the park, and was good at his job.

But Joseph refused.

Before he left, Brad asked him one last time what [music] he had really seen there.

Joseph replied, “I saw something that shouldn’t exist, but it does, and I don’t want to see it again.” Joseph left in November 1988.

According to unofficial information, he moved to Oregon and got a job at a sawmill.

He no longer worked outdoors.

After the case was closed, several [music] people contacted the police to report their observations in the area.

A tourist named Anthony called in September.

He said that in early July, about 2 weeks before Mark’s disappearance, he was hiking the Skyline Divide Trail with a group of friends.

In the evening, they set up camp near a stream.

During the night, he was awakened by a sound.

A loud, drawn out howl, not like a wolf, lower [music] and more powerful.

The sound came from somewhere in the forest on the west side.

The howling continued for several minutes, then stopped.

His friends heard it, too.

In the morning, they broke camp and left earlier than planned.

Another woman, a local resident of Glacier named Nancy, said that her dog, a German Shepherd, refuses to enter a certain part of the forest on the western slope of Mount Baker.

She walks her dog there regularly.

But about 2 years ago, the dog began to behave strangely.

When approaching this area, it stops, whines, tucks its tail, and refuses to go any further.

Nancy tried to pull on the leash, but the dog resisted and refused to move.

Once the dog was so frightened that it ran [music] back to the car, Nancy couldn’t explain what had frightened the animal.

She herself saw and heard nothing.

A hunter named Miller called in October.

He said he had been hunting in those mountains for 20 years.

In recent years, he had noticed something strange.

The deer had left certain areas.

The places where they used to graze in herds were now empty.

It was as if they were avoiding these places.

Miller suggested that a large predator had appeared there, perhaps a grizzly bear or a cougar.

But he found no traces of such animals.

He found other traces, very large footprints that he could not identify.

The items found during the search were sent for examination.

A torn backpack strap, a camera, a piece of fabric, a damaged backpack.

A materials expert from a laboratory in Seattle examined the straps and fabric.

He concluded that the tears had been made with great force.

The force required to tear such synthetic fabric and nylon straps is about 2 to 300 kg of tension.

This is more than a human can generate with their hands.

A bear can generate such force, but the nature of the tear does not correspond to [music] a bite.

There are no teeth marks, only stretching and tearing of the fibers.

A biologist examined the scratches on the backpack.

He noted that the four parallel lines are characteristic of the claws of a large predator, but the depth and width of the grooves are greater than those of a bear or cougar.

The distance between the grooves is about 6 to 7 cm, too wide for the known animals of the region.

The biologist was unable to give a definitive explanation.

The bones found in the cave were also examined.

They were the bones of deer.

ranging in age from several months to several years.

The bones were broken to extract the bone marrow, normal behavior for large predators.

But the method of breaking was strange, not a bite, but rather breaking by hand.

The biologist noted that some of the bones were broken with such force that it was difficult to explain.

The official conclusion of the experts was the damage to the missing tourists belongings is consistent with an attack by a large predator of an unidentified species.

The Mark Strauss case was officially closed in November 1988.

The case file states Mark Strauss is presumed to have died as a result of an accident in mountainous terrain.

The exact cause of death has not been determined due to the absence of a body.

The probable cause is a fall from a height or an attack by a wild animal.

The National Park Service did not publish any details.

The official press release stated briefly, “A tourist from Colorado went missing in Mount Baker Park in July.

The search operation did not lead to the discovery of a body.

Condolences were expressed to the family.

Local newspapers published short articles.

No one mentioned Joseph Keenan’s radio message.

No one wrote about the strange tracks or the cave with bones.

But rumors began to circulate among rangers and locals.

They said that something dangerous lived in the western part of Mount Baker, that those places should be avoided, especially alone.

Tourists were unofficially advised to stick to the main trails and not stray into the forest.

In the following years, strange tracks were found several times in the area.

In 2001, tourists reported loud noises at night, screams or howls coming from the forest.

In 2003, another tourist disappeared in the area for 2 days.

He was found alive but disoriented.

He claimed to have seen something large and dark following him through the forest.

When asked to describe it in more detail, he refused.

He only said, “Don’t go there alone.” The Mark Strauss case remains open in the National Park Service archives.

The body was never found.

The cause of the disappearance has not been officially determined, but those who participated in the search know more than what is written in the reports.

Joseph Keenan saw something that day on the western slope.

Something that should not exist according to all the rules [music] of nature.

Something that dragged a man deep into the forest and left no trace.

A recording of his radio message is kept in the archives.

The 11 seconds of silence after his words remain unexplained.

No one knows what he saw in those seconds that made him fall silent.

And perhaps it should remain that way.