Description

This is a stock picture used to illustrate what the object did. (https://preview.redd.it/s1r32tvoa15a1.jpg?width=960&format=pjpg&auto=…)

A friend and I were doing a cross-country hike, with permits to go off-trail, in the summer of 1982. And this is exactly the day I started to believe UFO's were real.

The picture is just an illustration to show the path of the object. We were actually camped on the flank of Mt. Rainier and just sitting around the campsite. Stars up there are extremely visible due to the altitude.

While we were looking up, we spotted a very bright light, slightly brighter than Venus, moving across the night sky from east (Spokane) to west. (Toward Seattle)

The object was much higher than any jetliner would travel. We could tell that. We stared at it as it moved in a straight line, probably high enough to be in orbit. My friend thought it might be a meteorite, but it moved too steadily to be that. I thought it was probably a satellite.

Then...without any warning and quicker than you can blink your eyes...it changed direction 90 degrees to the right and headed north. Nothing made by man could do that. We KNEW that and we both swore at the same time. We kept watching it until it disappeared over the horizon to the north.