The video: While backyard chefs were preparing last week for their Memorial Day barbecue feasts, the legendary and elusive Bigfoot was taking a stroll through the Pacific Northwest... or not. A hiker named Samantha used her iPhone to record her friends as they maneuvered through the lush Spokane, Wash., woods. (See the video below.) Just as one friend approaches a tree, a slouching, dark figure ambles across the bucolic scene at the top of the video screen. The group continues on, apparently unaware of their their close encounter with the mysterious creature. Upon returning home and viewing the nine-second clip, the hikers said the Bigfoot sighting scared "the crap" out of them. Theirs is not the first alleged Sasquatch sighting, but joins a long history of video and photographic "proof" that has largely been dismissed as bogus — just as this video has been labeled a "cleverly staged hoax."

The reaction: "The video does have a certain spontaneity to it," says Dennis Bodzash at Examiner. And the awkward, angled position of the creature "lends credence to the shooter's claim" that it is in fact Bigfoot. Not a chance, says Michael Soze at The Inquisitr. This is a total joke. If Bigfoot was as close as this "so-called video evidence" implies, the "giant bipedal ape would probably be clearly audible," instead of totally silent. And even if the figure is real, it could be anything, says Javier Ortega at Ghost Theory. A hiking prankster, perhaps, or "someone out spying on the group. Deliverance style. Gulp." Check out the video for yourself: