YEAR: 1968

SEASON: Summer

MONTH: July

STATE: California

COUNTY: Fresno County

LOCATION DETAILS: Approx. 100 yards east of Bullfrog Lake, at 10,500 ft. elevation, while on a backpacking trip in the High Sierras of California. From the map I just checked I believe it would be Tulare County because we were backpacking out of Onion Valley and had gone over Kersarge Pass to Bullfrog Lake.

OBSERVED: I was about 100 yards from our camp when I spotted what I thought was a cub bear looking around the camp. This was in broad daylight, around 3 in the afternoon.

What really caught my attention was the concentrated interest this cub bear was paying to my backpack in particular. I stood in one place for about 2 minutes watching this sight from 100 yards when this "cub bear" stood up and began to walk away.

At 18 years of age I couldn't force my mind to accept what my eyes were telling me. I watched the baby bigfoot (approx. 4-1/2 ft. tall) walk away from me into the trees for probably a full minute in duration. It disappeared into the trees at a distance of approximately 200-250 yards from me. It's arms swung like a person and walked with a smooth gate, not at all like a chimp or gorilla.

The hair was standing up on the back of my neck and I had a sense that I was witnessing something unnatural. I didn't tell anyone this incident until recently.

OTHER WITNESSES: Hiking back to the camp area.

OTHER STORIES: None.

TIME AND CONDITIONS: The year was 1968. Early July. Clear weather. Small patches of snow still around.

ENVIRONMENT: Basically flat terrain, approx 100 yards east of Bullfrog Lake and approx. 10 yards north of a small stream feeding Bullfrog Lake.