YEAR: 1986

SEASON: Summer

MONTH: June

STATE: California

COUNTY: Shasta County

LOCATION DETAILS: You take 299 West out of Redding. Go past Old Shasta up to Whiskeytown Lake and take the first turn to the left heading towards Brandy Creek. Just past Brandy Creek Recreation Area there is a turn to your left that takes you up towards Sheep Camp and it turns to dirt track about 1/4 of a mile up the road. You go past Sheep Camp heading up the mountain. Not sure exactly what the name is, but I believe its called Mt. Bally or Baldy. The road is very steep, but there are TV transmitters at the tops of this hill. The road switches back and forth up the hill. But near the top of the hill it switches back and you can see it is just like a little step before the top and right on the edge of the tree line. There is a little turn-out there where you can overlook Whiskeytown Lake. That is where we camped.

NEAREST TOWN: Old Shasta

NEAREST ROAD: 299 West

OBSERVED: Well, first I would like to state that I currently live in the Fresno area. But I was raised in Redding, CA. I have hunted all my life, and have heard various critters around and in my tent.

My friend Chris and I were camping out one night during the summer on Mt. Shasta Bally. I figure it was between 1:00 and 2:00 in the morning. My friend and I were awakened by something walking around the pickup, where we were sleeping in the bed of the truck. My first thought was bear, 'cause there are a lot of them in that area. I have had many bears walk around my tent in the Thousand Lakes Wilderness Area near Burney, CA. But this did not sound anything like a bear. It was then that I noticed my friend was awake and looking at me.

He asked me, "What is that?"

I really didn't know what to make of it. It seemed to be about 40-60 feet away from the truck when we first looked at each other. It circled the truck and when it was near the thicker brush it seemed to come closer. Then it really freaked me out because we smelled a really wild smell. It kinda reminded me of the smell of my dog after he got tore up by coyotes. At the time, Bigfoot never crossed my mind. But my hair totally stood up on the back of my neck. My friend was in the same state.

We were both armed with large-caliber handguns at the time but were too scared to sit up and look. We both just laid there looking at each other. I could hear myself breathing and tried to be as quiet as I could. Something inside me told me that if you sit up you aren't going to make it off this hill. This thing circled the truck for what I would guess to be about between 1-1/2 or two hours, moving closer, breaking branches -- what sounded like on purpose -- and making grunting sounds. Some time before it got light, it seemed to move off to the southwest.

When the sun came and it was light enough to see we got up and looked around the truck. We never got more than about 30 feet from the truck before we noticed disturbed pine needles and broken limbs on the trees about 6 feet off the ground.

My friend and I left that morning and went back into Redding. We told a few friends and my Dad about what happened. He had no answers either for what happened. I can remember thinking that it sounded like something walking on two legs. That really shook me up that day and to this day I will not go back on Mt. Bally at night. I have been back to that spot probably 50 times since then during the day, but towards evening times it bothers me to even be near that mountain.

ALSO NOTICED: Just the grunts and wild smell.

OTHER WITNESSES: There were two witnesses counting myself. My friend was sleeping and was awakened by the noise that it made walking around the truck.

OTHER STORIES: I haven't heard of any incidents in this area; I have had these uneasy feelings near Rainbow Lake, which you can see from the top of Mt. Bally.

ENVIRONMENT: We were actually on Mt. Bally. It's thick with brush and various plants. There are lots of granite boulders and rocks. The location is right on the edge of the tree line and it's kind of what I would call a little step in the hill like a saddle before it goes to the top. But [it's] right on the tree line so I figure around 8,000 feet elevation or better.