YEAR: 1996

SEASON: Summer

MONTH: September

STATE: California

COUNTY: Plumas County

LOCATION DETAILS: Plumas National Forest, California

OBSERVED: I was mining on the creek, when some movement caught my eye, as I stood up I saw, clear as day, a Bigfoot peering from behind a tree. The hair on my neck stood straight up on the back of my neck as I moved backwards across the creek bed away from it. As I did, I slipped on mossy rocks fell back and and banged my arm up pretty bad which required medical attention later, keeping a close eye on what it was doing.

I know exactly what I saw as well as it saw me. We are talking about a distance of 60-75 yards. My mining partner was upstream from us and it knew that too, as he kept looking up stream looking for him. My friend must have spooked it my way. As it spotted me, already acting nervous, it leaped up and climbed over some rocks and was gone, as it knew to stay low like it was in a firefight, staying as much out of sight as possible. In a panic and injured I was heading up the trail as fast as I could.

The behavior I observed was so fascinating that this thing was very tactful and knew exactly what it was doing. Quite the sure-footed creature!

ALSO NOTICED: None, pretty quiet area, a lot of cougar, some bears, ( I am quite aware of what a bear looks like, and it wasn't a bear!) and I have been running in those hills a long time. Medium growth vegetation and trees.

OTHER WITNESSES: Mining.

ENVIRONMENT: Steep ravine, approx. 1/2 mile from a logging road.