NUFORC Sighting 37780

Occurred: 1985-08-28 02:30 Local
Reported: 2004-06-25 10:52 Pacific
Duration: 20 minutes
No of observers: 2

Location: North Bay (Canada), ON, Canada

Shape: Disk
Characteristics: Lights on object, Emitted beams, Changed Colo

A very close encounter near North Bay, Ontario. It was totally silent and so close I could have hit it with a rock.

I cannot remember the exact date, it was late August or early September around 1985. The date can be correlated to a day when a Russian satellite fell from orbit and crashed in Lake Superior. That was the explanation that was given by the radio station in North Bay the next morning, as the reason for the lights that were seen and reported by multiple people from the previous night.

My brother-in-law and I had a much closer encounter with this craft. Hunting season had begun and in deference to the hunter's, we would go riding our ATV's late at night.

We had been riding about three hours this night on trails in the Almaguin Highlands, about 20 miles south of North Bay, Ontario. This is Crown land and as such there are no buildings of any kind for many miles.

We stopped on a ridge and shut off our machines (altitude 1400' - we checked on a topographical map on our return) for a "pee" break. It was a beautiful, clear starry night with not a whisper of wind. We could see from the ridge the darkness that represented Lake Nippising and the lights of North Bay, some twenty miles distant. While taking our break I could hear a dog barking, perhaps five miles away in the valley below. I only mention that to emphasize how incredibly quiet it was where we stood.

My brother-in-law asks me, "Did you see that flash of light?" I replied that it must be the red flashing light from the radio tower in North Bay. Twenty seconds later he asks again, "Did you see that flash of light?" I turned to my left to face him and over the ridge top behind us, about twenty-five feet above the trees, came this craft with glowing lights on it's edge, the lights going yellow, red, orange, blue, green along the length of the craft. My brother-in-law saw my face and turned to see it as well. It was approximately 100 feet in length. It moved slowly from our left to right, following the ridge line and staying twenty feet above the trees. Suddenly it gave off a flash of light, like a camera flash, only it lit up the entire area around us. I could clearly see every tree, bush and rock, when moments before it had been totally dark. The craft and the flash made absolutely no sound. It was so close I could have easily thrown a rock and hit it. I whispered to Ron, "Do you see it?", not believing my eyes, but also not wanting to be heard by it. I'm not kidding - it was that quiet, so much so that I was afraid to raise my voice.

It kept moving to the right and let off another flash. The brightness was ruining my ability to distinguish any features other than the glowing lights and general shape, much the same way a flashbulb causes you to see spots before your eyes.

It started to drop away, following the contours of the land, staying the same distance above the trees. As it passed us to the right, the 30 - 40 foot pine trees in front of us, started blowing about madly, buffeted by the strong winds generated as the craft passed, much the same as the wake of a boat hits the shoreline. As it dropped out of view, the winds calmed and everything returned to the stillness of before.

In my mind I thought, "You can't fool mother nature!" What I mean by that is, I may not believe what I'm seeing, but the violent wind proved that something huge had just passed by, causing the disturbance.

We took compass headings for the next ten minutes, as we watched the craft move down the valley. It flashed the bright light approx. every twenty seconds, lighting up acres of land below it.

I was in the Canadian Air Force for two years, working around jets and helicopters and there is nothing, other than a glider, that can fly without making a sound. Even then you would probably hear the wind pass over the wings.

I would like to say I was brave and unmoved by this event, but the truth is, it was so unearthly that my first instinct was to want to hide under a rock. I was terrified and it took me twenty minutes to calm down enough to get back on the ATV and ride.

The next morning there were multiple reports to the local radio station, from people claiming to have seen a UFO. The explanation was that it was the Soviet satellite crashing into Lake Superior.

The craft we saw was flying, not crashing and Lake Superior was approx. 600 miles west of where we were.

I've told this story to many people over the years, mostly met with skepticism. After reading many of the sightings on your site, I felt compelled to contribute my story.



Posted 2004-07-08

© 2023 National UFO Reporting Center. All rights reserved. Use or reproduction within any application without written consent is prohibited.