YEAR: 1997

SEASON: Summer

MONTH: June

DATE: 4th

STATE: California

COUNTY: Del Norte County

LOCATION DETAILS: Del Norte County, California, USA. Nearest town is Gasquet, on Hwy 199, about 15-20 miles from Cresent City. About one half mile north up Walker Road the road ends at a large gravel and sand bar on the Smith River.

OBSERVED: R.L. and some friends were shooting bottle rockets off over the gravel area and river around midnight on the Fourth of July, 1997. A car stereo was on with the bass turned up. It was about 30 to 45 minutes after starting to shoot the bottle rockets that R. heard the first "whoop". He was walking on a log when he heard "WHOOP, WHOOP, WHOOP". Each whoop was rising in tone and also rising in tone from the last one. "The hair stood up on my neck" R. said There was was about 10 to 20 of these "WHOOP, WHOOP, WHOOP"s. It sounded like they were about a mile away, but seemed to be getting closer, or louder, as they progressed.
The forest was extremely quiet except for the "Whoops". Everyone was scared and wanted to leave the area immediately, which is what they did.

ALSO NOTICED: The forest was extremely quiet. Felt odd.

OTHER WITNESSES: Playing a stereo rather loudly with the bass turned up, and setting off bottle rockets.

ENVIRONMENT: The end of Walker Road in the Redwood forests in Northern California. At the end of the road is a gravel and sand area about a half an acre in size, bordering the Smith River. Beyond the gravel area are scrub trees on a wide river bar that appear to go upstream for at least a mile.