On May 26, 1996, Owen Pate, his wife, and five friends had a strange encounter while on a camping trip.

Actually, the Pate's sighting was not the only report of seeing a bigfoot that month. The first sighting was a few days before the 26th when a fisherman was sitting, eating his lunch. He had the feeling of being watched. Looking up he could see something in the distance that appeared to be looking his way. He grabbed his binoculars for a better view. Watching him at his lunch was a large hairy creature. He estimated it to be around 7 ft tall.

The second sighting was the one that involved the Pates. A woman saw a figure running down the mountainside and watched it as it disappeared into the trees at the bottom. She called Owen Pate and told him what she had seen. When he got there, the creature emerged from the bushes at the fence line. The fence was 5 ft high. He estimated the creature to be around 6 1/2 to 7 ft tall and very wide at the shoulders.