A convincing tale of a Bigfoot Encounter I heard

Back in Washington state, at this paranormal group, I knew this guy named Jason who went around telling about his Bigfoot encounter at public presentations and radio shows. I heard his story a few times and it sounded very sincere and articulate. The way he tells it sounds so genuine that you just can't help but believe it.

However, there are some suspicious things. The guy who saw Bigfoot with him can't be found, and he has said other things that were a bit "off the rocker" (e.g. he is a raw foodist and advocated Scientology at one point). But he is a great orator and very personable.

Here is a version of his story that he wrote by email:

"In April of 1996, a former business partner & I
were coming back from a meeting in Pensacola, Florida
on a week night, heading for home to Largo, FL. We
left Pensacola around midnight. We arrived in
Tallahassee approximately 4:00 am. I stopped & asked
a policeman at a convenient mart to give me directions
to a road that would take us from interstate 10 to
U.S. 19, so that we could avoid the rush hour traffic
that we would have encountered later in the morning if
we had continued via the interstate. Approximately 15
minutes into the ride out of Tallahassee, going south
bound on a road that bordered the east side of
Appalachicola state forest is where this experience
took place. I had just reached down to turn off the
radio, because the stations were out of range for good
reception, when I saw something on the right side of
the road. At about 200 yards is when I first saw it &
we were traveling at about 55 mph. I immediately took
my foot off of the accelerator and "covered" the brake
in case it was an animal that might move onto the
road. I then clicked my high beams on & this thing
lifted its head from a downward position to look our
way. It was squatting behind the top of pine tree
that had fallen through the forest right up next to
the road & looked like it might have been picking
through something like a bird's nest. In the next
moment, at about 100 yards, She stood up and put here
hands in front of her face to block my headlights and
starting walking backwards & I knew it was a female
"something" because of the long pendulous breasts that
were swinging back and forth on her chest. What I
could see of her face was just for a moment & it
seemed she had a terrified expression. Besides the
breasts catching my attention, I was amazed at the
palms of her hands, because they seemed to look
strikingly similar to a humans. And each finger &
thumb was stained with a dark, purplish color, and the
same color was on the tip of her nose. Her coat of
hair/fur was blond in appearance, at least in the
lighting of my headlights.

Her head seemed unusually small for the size of her
body & was set low in between her very broad
shoulders, almost as if she didn't have a neck. Her
face looked so bizarre to me that I can't think of any
mammal that looks like it. The best I can describe
it, is like a cross between a chimp & a pit bull. I
could see very light colored skin in between some of
the matted fur/hair on her body & I could clearly see
skin around the eyes, forehead & cheekbones. I
couldn't see any color to her eyes, but they glowed
like a cats eyes when light is shown in them & they
were very large in diameter. She did have a classic
hour glass figure. Very small waist in relation to
chest & hips. Not very much body fat, in fact, she
seemed very defined in her muscles. I remember seeing
striations of muscle in her forearms, upperarms &
shoulders. Her arms weren't really big, just very
defined. When she was walking backward, I noticed
that her gait seemed to have a woddle to it. As if she
were squatting a bit & knock knee, kind of like how
Grouch Marx would do that goofy walk, but just
backwards. And it really was amazing how big her hips
were, about as wide as her shoulders. I'm 6'4", and I
know she was at least 7' maybe closer to 8'.

As I was coming to a complete stop, just a few
yards past her, we were so close to her, that if
Dennis had had the window rolled down, he could have
reached out & grabbed her arm. That's how close we
were! I passed her at about 20 mph before we stopped.
As we passed her, Dennis got a view of her that I
didn't get to see since I was driving. He told me
that a few seconds after we had passed her, as he was
looking back through the window, he witnessed her
leaping from a standing position approximately 20 to
30 feet horizontal, 10 to 15 feet vertical and then
landing into a full blown sprint through the sand pine
forest. The reason Dennis had such a good view of
this was because my rear taillights were illuminating
the forest from having the brake on. And sand pine
forests in Florida don't have much undergrowth over 2
feet high & the branches on the trees don't start
until around 20 to 30 feet off the ground. So he said
he had a very clear view of this creature. He also
told me that he had never seen anything run that fast!

This experience completely shattered my belief
system into a million pieces & inspired me to do the
research that I have been fortunate enough to
accomplish. I tell people that this experience is
analogues to winning the lottery. I'm just one of
those few lucky people who know the answer to the
Bigfoot/Sasquatch mystery. I moved from Florida to
Bellingham, Washington in 1999 to be in an area where
research was more prevelant. One final note for the
skeptics, I know I can't prove anything just from my
experience, but I know I experienced something that I
believe to be a large hominid being with a witness who
we both agree that it was a "not normal" experience.

NAMASTE"

W: Now, the Bigfoot mystery is weird and doesn't make sense from both sides. If it exists, I have a hard time buying that no one has been able to capture one, kill one, find a dead body, or even take a decent photo of one. But on the other hand, I also don't buy that so many people around the world across different cultures and throughout history (i.e. "Native American Indians") who claim to have seen Bigfoot are all hallucinating or lying. Either scenario is improbable. And that's what makes this mystery so bizarre.

Any ideas? Does anyone have an explanation that accounts for both improbabilities?

Addendum:

I just heard from Jason, the guy with the bigfoot story above. He has a new site now dedicated to Sasquatch Research. Here it is:

"Winston,

Thanks for posting. You can also check out my site at http://www.sasquatchresearch.net and there is a lot more info on there.

And Happy Holiday wishes to you,

jason"

Oh and here is an account of his Bigfoot sighting on his own website:

http://www.sasquatchresearch.net/jasonvalenti.html

It's a nice looking site.