YEAR: 1970 1990

SEASON: Summer

STATE: California

COUNTY: Shasta County

LOCATION DETAILS: The Lake Shasta sighting was up the Pit River arm of Lake Shasta, which is East of the Jones Valley Resort.

NEAREST TOWN: Redding, California

NEAREST ROAD: I believe the road was called, Bear Mountain Road that leads to the Jones Valley Resort, where we launched our boat.

OBSERVED: I have seen Bigfoot two times. The first time was one summer in the late 1970s. My friend and I were camping in the Tahoe National Forest in California. We were camping out of a station wagon, as we did not have a tent. My friend was cooking on the Hibachi, and I was sitting on the tailgate of the station wagon watching him. We were in a newly planted area of seedling pines. The surrounding that area was old growth pine trees. I looked over at the old growth area and there stood Big Foot. He was about 5' tall, and hairy all over. His eyes were large as if he were use to living in darker environment. I told my friend to turn around slowly, and look, as he did the Bigfoot melted out of sight back into the forest.

After we had gone to bed for the night around 2:00 AM in the morning, something hit the station wagon so hard that it rocked back and forth. Scared me half silly. The windows were clouded inside with moisture, and the night was dark.

The next time I saw Bigfoot, I was at Lake Shasta in the late 1990s. Wayne, Ginger the dog, and I were bass fishing on the lake, and the weather was warm. On the shore was Bigfoot walking down towards the water. When he got there he swooped his left arm down into the water as if he were checking a trap to see if there were any fish in it. He stood up and walked up the steep hill without any effort. He was huge. From the boat he appeared to be at least 7 to 8 feet tall. He had long shaggy hair, very dark brown. While all of this is going on Ginger the dog was going berserk. She was running around the boat yelping and howling. I told Wayne there is Bigfoot. He did not see him. The place where we had launched the boat was in the Jones Valley Resort area.

When I tell people I have seen Bigfoot, and they think I am crazy. I'm not. Cousin Bob went out fishing with Wayne not too long after that. He said he saw something also. He said he didn't know if it was a turkey hunter in disguise or what, but it walked up the steep hill with no effort.

ALSO NOTICED: During the first sighting, late 1970’s, the vehicle was hit with powerful force during the night.

OTHER WITNESSES: None. I was the only person who saw them both times.

TIME AND CONDITIONS: During the first sighting, late 1970’s, time was dusk, and it was summer. During the second sighting, late 1990’s, it was a nice warm summer day, well lit, with no clouds or rain.

ENVIRONMENT: Both times were in pine forest.

Follow-up investigation report by BFRO Investigator Richard Hucklebridge:

Tonight, the 18th of May 2005, Penny called me, and we went over her two sightings, the first one that took place during the late 1970’s (For a specific location, see below) in the Tahoe National Forest, and the last one that took place in the late 1990’s on Lake Shasta, California. Penny’s ex-husband told her about the BFRO, after he had seen an article in a Redding newspaper, called the Record Searchlight. His reason for telling her about us was that he knew that she had observed a Bigfoot while they were both fishing up the Pit River arm of Lake Shasta.

Penny relayed a few more details that she could recall, her first sighting, which took place in the Tahoe National Forest in the late 1970’s, off on a dirt-logging road that was off of Hwy 89, about ½ way between Truckee and Sierraville, California. (You can use the Northern California Delorme Atlas, Page 81, Index A 6, to better find that location.) She and a friend were camping in an area that was newly planted with seedling pine trees. The time was at dusk and it was getting dark fast, they were trying to cook dinner before it got too dark. She was sitting on the tailgate of the station wagon, when she looked past her boy friend and into the old growth pine tress, which were about 50 feet or so away. She said that she was surprised, but wasn’t scared. This 5’ tall creature was just standing there, on two legs, watching them, and had its arms down along its sides. She noticed the eyes, because they were really round, and they reminded her of the eyes of monkeys that only come out at night. The creature was covered totally with hair, which was a dark brown to black. The arms seemed much longer than a humans arm, because they extended down to its knees. Penny said, “because of the creatures size, it was not a child or an adult, and I thought it weighed about 150 pounds or maybe a little more.” She couldn’t tell if it was a male of a female, and it never made any noise. As she was attempting to tell her boy friend, to turn around slowly, to see what she was seeing, the creature just "melted" back into the forest and out of sight, so he never had the opportunity to see it. Her total time of observance, she figured, was a couple of minutes more or less.

Sometime during the early morning hours, the driver’s side of the station wagon was hit with enough force that the vehicle was rocked from side to side, and it scared the living day lights out of the both of them. Just after that occurred, the both of them had to relieve themselves, but neither of them wanted to go outside of that station wagon. After some time had passed, they went out and quickly returned back to the safety of the station wagon. The next morning, they checked out the station wagon, but couldn’t find any signs of where the vehicle was hit. They also checked out the area where Penny had seen the creature, but couldn’t come up with any prints or tracks in that area.

The second sighting took place about a half hour boat trip up the Pit River arm of Lake Shasta from the Jones Valley Resort where they put their boat in the water. It took place sometime between the months of June and August, Late 1990’s, and between the hours of 11 am to 12 am. Penny and her now ex-husband was slowly trolling for bass heading up the Pit River arm of the lake, and there was a rather steep incline on the right hand side of that section of the river inlet arm to the lake. Penny said, “I first observed this massive creature walking down towards the lake, and as I watched, it took the last 3 or 4 large steps to the waters edge.” “The creature then bent down, and with its left arm, it pulled something out of the lake, and was looking at it.” “To me, what the creature had pulled out of the lake was some kind of a fish cage or trap, made out of small tree branches.” “The trap seemed empty.” “At this point in time, the creature was about 50 yards or so, away from our boat, and I attempted to alert my ex husband as to what was taking place on shore, but when he looked in that direction, he couldn’t see what I was looking at.” Penny continued saying, “this creature was covered with hair, and the color of it was a dark brown to black, which blended into the background real good.” “Due to its color and the background; this made the creature seem like it was almost camouflaged in plain sight, and very difficult to see.” “Anyway, the creature then placed the cage or trap back into the lake, and it turned and walked back up a very steep incline into the foliage, which was about 75 yards away from the water's edge, disappeared into that foliage, and was gone.” “I thought the total time that I had seen the creature was at least several minutes long.” “The creature seemed unconcerned with the boat, and its occupants which included my ex, myself and our old dog that was very upset with what ever it was on shore, because it was raising heck by barking and howling real loud.” “The creature never looked in our direction, but it had to have heard the ruckus the dog was making. It never paid any attention to any of it, and just seemed unconcerned, and went on about what it was doing.”

Per Penny, “I thought the fish cage or trap was made out of small branches or sticks, and it was placed at a small river outlet that was entering into the lake at that point.” “I knew what I was looking at, a bigfoot, and it was huge, about 8 feet tall, and it had to weigh well over 375 pounds. The creature's legs and torso were also huge, and I thought the head was nicely proportioned to the rest of its body.” “I was too far away to see any facial features.” “I didn’t notice any ears on its head, but the arms were large and long like they were at least down to its knees, and they were a lot longer than any human that I know about.” “I never heard or smelled anything out of the ordinary.” “We did move the boat closer to shore, to where the creature had turned and went back into the forest, but we never got out of that boat.”

Summary: I ask Penny "What do you think about the creatures you had witnessed since you had two sightings over a period of years, and you had several minutes to observe them?" Her answer was, “I think these creatures are more human-like than they are like animals, because of their mannerisms, and some of the different facial expressions that I observed on the little ones face. Also, the way they moved when they walked, and while using there arms, and body. Plus, the big one who was using something like a fishing trap to obtain its food has got to tell you something.” Penny observed several facial expressions on the little ones face, from extreme interest while watching what was going on, to fear when she told her boy friend to turn around.

I also asked her if she was familiar with the 1967 Bluff Creek film? She stated, “Yes I am familiar with that film.” Penny went on to describe the female creature that was filmed in a sandy river bottom, saying, “that I had seen that film several times in the past.” I then asked her if she could relate it to the two that she had observed? She said, “they are the same type of creatures, but I think the big one, that I had seen on Lake Shasta, was a male because of its size.” “It was just plain huge!” I further asked if she thought the creature in the 1967 film was that of a man in a costume or the real thing? She said, defiantly "What I have seen, and what is in the Bluff Creek film are living creatures, and they are too similar in actions and looks to have been hoaxed by any man.”

Penny seemed a very credible witness, told me, that she would take a polygraph test to prove her authenticity to her sightings, if necessary. I do believe that Penny had two separate sightings, over several minutes in duration, which makes her better qualified than most to discriminate between the real thing and a hoax.

Related Media Articles:

• Bigfoot sighting leaves lasting imprint (4/16/2005; The Redding Ca. Record Searchlight)