Report 71773: Nighttime motorist sighting 25 miles NW of Spokane

Friday Oct 22, 9:40 pm I had just left our local school homecoming football game in Springdale Washington, with 2 of my children and a friend of theirs (2 High School freshman and a mid schooler). We were driving south on Highway 231 and as we approached Sanctuary Way (47.9763678, -117.7323568) just off the highway in the ditch I noticed a very large black "thing" in the tall yellow, uncut grass. I initially thought it may be a black wolf, so i slowed down and stared at it as we approached. By the time we drove to it, we were traveling about 35-40 MPH. As we reached it I was in shock and amazement as it was an ape like figure hunched down in the ditch staring right at me.  From the crouched position he/she took two steps away from the road. It was almost as it was slow motion as it felt our eyes were locked and its head was on a swivel as we rolled by. I wished I had slammed on the brakes but we had 2 cars behind us and I was literally shocked. We turned at the first turnout available 60 yards up the road) let the cars go by and returned to the location but did not see or hear anything at all. I am still perplexed at this sighting as I clearly seen everything from Face, Head, Arms, Legs etc. They were all very well defined and covered with short hair/fur (with the exception of the lower forehead, eyes and nose.