Bigfoot Sightings

Report Received From: The GCBRO Online Report Submission Form.

Report Posted To GCBRO Web Site On: October 1, 2006

TERRAIN: Mountain, timbered with loge pole pine, and rocky, had been dredged years ago

OBSERVED: I was a single parent with four little children ranging in age from 5 to 11 years old. We, and a couple we'd met from Oklahoma had been cutting fire wood for sale, to put grub on the table. We were living in a remote camp, about 8 miles from XXXX XXX up on XXXXXX mountain. The kids and I had constructed a pole frame structure that we tied a plastic tarpaulin to, to keep the evening dew off of our beds. The front and ends were totally open, while the back at the head of our beds was closed in. XXXXX and XXX, our help to cut the fire wood, were sleeping in a station wagon. Cutting fire wood wasn't doing all that well, and I managed to get a job at the sawmill as an equipment mechanic and was working from 2:00 pm each day, until 10:00 pm It must have been on a thursday night that XXXXX decided to get something to drink, and he was up sitting by the camp fire that night when I got there from work. I slept on the far end of the "fly" as we called it, from the camp fire, and the four kids each had cots with walking room between them down the line . This one night, XXXXX kept yelling as if at someone out in the brush. Of course this kept me awake, but I was so tired that I knew I'd eventually fall asleep. But my oldest son had the cot near the end by the campfire, and finally just got up and sat by the fire. The yelling went on for sometime, and eventually XXXXX, and my son went to bed. The next morning, I asked my son what XXXXX had been yelling about, and he told me that something had been walking around and around the camp all night long, just out of the light of the camp fire. XXXXX had been drinking, so I wouldn't have asked him anyway, but my 11 year old son, I knew he would tell me the truth. That was the first odd night there. The very next night, when I came into the camp after work, everyone was already in bed. Evidently XXXXX and XXX had had some kind of promblem, and XXX would not stay with him in the station wagon that night, and my next oldest son offered her his cot, and he slept on the ground between the other two boys cots, near the end by the camp fire. It was cold enough at night, that we all just slept in our cloths, and sleeping bags. From my cot on the other end, I could reach out and grab a hand full of brush. Our "fly" was built right up against it. I suspect that I got there about 11:00 pm, and went right to bed. A stand-up tool box separated my cot from the next, and I kept a 30-30 rifle leaning against it, loaded at all times. We'd had a Black Bear come into the camp about a month earlier. We didn't actually see it physically, but the tracks led from the road, right into our camp while we were gone cutting wood. On this night, I went right to sleep, but about 1:00 am, I was awakened by something touching the plastic tarp just inches from the head of my cot. It woke me up, but I just laid there listening, thinking it was probably just a field mouse, but kept still and listened. In a few minutes, this thing very quietly sounded like a huge man that had been sitting crouched on one foot, and shifted his weight onto the other. I knew at that point that it was not a mouse. I very quietly reached for my rifle, and laid it across my chest, and again just listened. The first thing I thought about was XXXXX, that he might be looking to see where XXX was sleeping. In a few minutes again, the same sound like someone shifting their weight to their other foot. This time I jumped up and levered a shell in the chamber, and when I did, this thing made a huge gasping sound, like it was startled, jumped up and started running away. It was heavily overcast, and no moon, and I couldn't see a thing. As it ran, I called out XXXXX's name, and about the time I did, I realized that this thing was running through the trees, and not even hitting a limb, nor tripping on a dredged up rock. By the time I'd realized that it wasn't XXXXX, it had traveled a good 150 yards, and was on the road above our camp. Whatever it was scared me bad, and evidently scared our German shepherd, Collie cross dog too, as it never made a sound the whole time, and was whimpering under the kids' cots. I did not sleep for most of the rest of the night. I let the hammer down and kept the 30-30 across my chest the rest of the night. I woke my 11 year old up by the racket I was making yelling for XXXXX, but the rest of the kids and XXX never eve n woke up. Nor did XXXXX, who was sound asleep in the car. Whatever that was, sounded like a big, big man running in tennis shoes across that pile of rocks. There was no odor what-so-ever that I could detect. It evidently had the ability to see well with no moonlight, and so dark that nothing was visible without a flashlight. The next morning, I literally crawled on my hands and knees from the tarpaulin where I first heard it, all the way to the road where it climbed the little incline, and could not see a single sign that anything had been there at all. It scared me, and I made arrangements for the kids to stay with some friends in XXXX XXX for a few days, and XXXXX and I went back to the camp for about three more nights, and there was no more sign, sounds, or anything disturbing. I firmly believe that there is a creature out there that is evading detection, and have since I was about 10 years old when it was reported in the Redding, California Record Searchlight paper about some teenage boys seeing such a creature near a bridge south east of Redding. We never camped there again. Since that time, after the kids grew up, I've spent 13 more years in the woods by myself, and never had another experience like that one.

Activities of Witness: My family and I, and two friends were camping out and cutting firewood to sell. This was at our base camp. It was pitch black darkness at about 1:00 am in the morning.

Description of Creature: A physical description isn't possible, but from what I heard, it sounded like a huge person. Not only when it gasped for a gulp of air, but when it ran off. It sounded like it ran on two legs, and as I mentioned, it sounded like a big man running in tennis shoes. When I'd regained my composure, I'd realized that there was nothing that I could smell about it, and no other sounds were made by it. Basically, it just sounded like a huge, but very fast man running.

Other Notes: I believe these creatures exist, and I went back to see if I might be able to get a glimpse of it for a few nights after. Now that I am older, I can't believe that I actually had the guts. I was about 35 then...

Other (Informational or Encounter History in the General Area) Notes: When I mentioned what had happened when I went to work, I was told that the XXXXXXXXX, Idaho Sheriffs office had an aerial photo of what looked like a large black bear crossing a logging road in that area, on it's hind legs, which is not a comfortable way for a bear to walk anywhere. And, I'd also been told that there were at least two other incidences involving strange actions by animals, not too many miles away, some time before this happened with us. One was something running around a corral with horses in it, scaring the horses one night, then screaming and running into the hills, and another up near XXXXXXXX lakes which are near XXXXXXX XXXXX, out of XXXXXX, an old mining town in the area. This incident involved some fishermen's camp being torn apart while they were down at the lake. They broke camp and hiked out that night.

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