SIGHTING: PAYSAYTEN WILDERNESS, WA

Witness Testimony

"Daylight Large Bright Light in Paysayten WildernessOn September 11, 2009 at 12:23pm I was hiking out of the Paysayten Wilderness on the Pacific Crest Trail north of Slate Peak / Harts Pass when I noticed an extremely bright large white light on the summit of a peak north of Jack Mt. The light was roughly 8 miles away, maybe closer. It drew my attention due to its intensity which remained constant for the time I observed it. The weather was clear, unlimited visibility, a blue sky, no clouds, about 50 Degrees F, a light wind at about 2 mph. I was at about 6,700ft elevation. At least 10 other people in that area saw it. The trail was busy that day and everybody I passed talked about the light. I would estimate the light was probably 100ft in diameter and appeared round in shape. To the eye it was blindingly bright, like an arc welder with a white color that appeared to have a blue tinge at the edges. When I reached the trail head a forest service worker asked if I saw the light. A ranger passed by in a truck. T! he forest service worker asked the ranger who summers at Harts Pass if he knew what it was and he did not. It was nothing they had seen before. I did not see the light in the air or see the light switch on or off. I took some images of the light with a Nikon D90 DSLR using a Nikon 18-200mm VR DX lens set at f/8.0 and 200mm. I was on a steep hillside with a heavy pack, very tired, shaky and did not stop to use a tripod or optimize the camera settings so the images are not as sharp as they could be. To the eye the light was blindingly bright; it appeared to overload the camera sensor when it was imaged. The effect was similar to taking a picture of the sun without a filter, but confined to a small well defined area without lens flare or burst pattern. At least 10 people talked to me about the light and it is likely that more than 10 people saw it because there were many people hiking in that area that day and at that time. The Pacific Crest Trail stays on top of ridges in tha! t area at 6500ft or higher. I would estimate I observed the li! ght over the period of about 30 minutes. I took the images and stopped observing the light, and then it was gone when I looked up again. The peak the light was on is above Ross Lake and there are no roads or anything else in that area."