YEAR: 1989

SEASON: Spring

MONTH: May

DATE: 05-26-89

STATE: California

COUNTY: Siskiyou County

LOCATION DETAILS: On a return trip to Klamath Falls, OR from sightseeing in the Redwoods, my ex-husband and I camped on the outskirts of Klamath National Forest, north of Weed, between Goosenest and Herd Peak Mts.

NEAREST TOWN: Weed

NEAREST ROAD: 97 North

OBSERVED: I was having a dream that I was being watched. My ex and I had thrown our mattress in the back of our truck, which sat about 1.5 feet lower than the canopy windows. The dream I had frightened me, because the face I was seeing was not human. I woke up in a sweat and happened to be facing the window in the canopy in time to see a large dark form moving away from the window, toward the front of the truck and out of my view. I sat up and cautiously peeked out of the canopy window to see this VERY LARGE,dark, hairy figure moving quickly up the hill into the forest from the campground. It walked upright with the gait of a human, it moved through the trees giving me an estimate of it's height at about 7ft. I remember loosing my scientific detachment at that time and as the "thing" disappeared further up the hill, I shook my ex awake and through a choked and somewhat hysterical description explained that I was very frightened. I couldn't calm down, and he decided it would be a good idea to leave. We quickly got out of the back of the truck and noticed a very dank and musky smell. This scared me even further and we loaded our things and drove out of the camp. I wish I had been in a better frame of mind during the event, however the memory of the face I had seen, apparently in the half awake state( and still see in my mind) was not condusive to rational thinking. It was vaguely humanoid with large protruding brows, the eyes were dark and intense. The nose was a strange mixture of gorilla and human. The mouth was severe and somewhat turned down with fleshy lips. The facial hair was not on nose, eyes or mouth. The head was conical shaped, with a pronounced saggital crest. The jaw was not prognathic. Frankly, it scared the s*** out of me. I must state that I am a student of anthropology at Portland State University, and have never (outside of immediate family members) discussed this with my colleagues. I have always been fascinated with the "legends" but perhaps I never believed them truly until that moment. My family is amused by my story but think perhaps I just had a bad dream. Doubt it.

OTHER WITNESSES: I was the only observer of the "thing", however my ex-husband can verify my extreme fright and the weird smell.

OTHER STORIES: I was not aware of stories in that particular area. Of course I knew about Patterson and Bluff Creek, but I had never considered ever being a witness.

TIME AND CONDITIONS: The incident occered in the early hours of the morning, approximately 4:30-5:00 am. The campground was barely lit with the light of false dawn, enough to make out individual trees and other camping areas.

ENVIRONMENT: The sighting occurred at a developed campground, at or around mile marker 54 north and east of Weed California. It was a dense pine forest area with little, to no low ground cover. The trees, although dense were straight and consistently spaced. Our camp was approximately 50 yds. south of the restrooms, no camp between ours and the facilities.

Follow-up investigation report:

After speaking with the witness via telephone, I concluded her report was very credible. She is a recent graduate student of anthropology at Portland State, and wanted to note that whatever animal she saw that morning she was not able to identify from any of her past studies. Describing the face in more detail, she said the mouth had a kind of "grimace" to it, and there was "much more of an over abundance of upper lip and a lack of lower lip". Also, there was a lack of hair around the eyes, nose and mouth.

The witness was 21 years old at the time of her sighting and also mentioned the smell she noticed once exiting the back of the vehicle was "musky-rotten, like the worst of a wet dog". She did not notice if there were any tracks since she was in quite a hurry to leave the area, nor did she return at a later date to check for any prints.

This witness would like to remain anonymous, due to the fear of ridicule by her colleagues.