YEAR: 1976

SEASON: Summer

STATE: California

COUNTY: Mendocino County

LOCATION DETAILS: Little Doe Rock, just above Covelo Indian Reservation, Mendocino, CA.

OBSERVED: I was deer hunting with some fireman friends and it was the end of the morning hunt, about 10 am, when Bob and I were watching 2 doe struggling to climb a shale cliff, as we heard a lot of noise down below in a wooded gully.

A minute later, we saw an elderly man climbing up the steep hill towards us. We waited for him to reach the top to see what he had seen that morning in the way of deer. When he reached us we could see he was very scared and pale. He could hardly talk, he was breathing so hard. But after a couple minutes he was able to tell us that he had just seen bigfoot at the bottom of the gully.

We looked at each other and smiled trying not to laugh and the guy got angry saying he didn't care if we believed us [sic] or not, he knows what he saw and it was huge. We still didn't believe him until he said, "I paid $700 dollars for my deer rifle 3 years ago and I just dropped it and ran." Then we noticed that he didn't have his rifle and the goosebumps hit us both. The guy just kept walking down the old logger trail and left.

Bob went down and found the guy's rifle. It was a beautiful Browning 30-06 with scope. We looked for the guy's camp but he had apparently left. I believe this old man saw what he saw !!!

OTHER WITNESSES: Deer hunting.

ENVIRONMENT: Very heavy timber area with lots of green meadows and rocky cliffs and lots of small streams. Little Doe Rock area is in the Mendocino Forest just above the Covelo Dept. of Forestry fire station near the Tehama County line.