YEAR: 2000

SEASON: Summer

MONTH: June

STATE: California

COUNTY: Siskiyou County

LOCATION DETAILS: On the Salmon River by Orleans, Ca. I don’t know the highway name. I was only there for a couple of weeks, and there are mountains in that area, and I don’t know the name of them.

NEAREST TOWN: Orleans, Ca.

NEAREST ROAD: Unknown

OBSERVED: We were in Orleans, Ca., which is close to the Hoopa Indian Reservation. I was visiting Joe and his Mom, because I have known them since I was about five or six years old. My friend and I took a horse back ride in Humboldt county, up the Salmon River, with a guide that has cabins there. He takes care of these cabins, and they are about a three-hour horse back ride, up the river. I met James, the guide, through Joe’s Mom, because he was staying with her when I got to California. I can’t remember James’s last name.

We stopped after about an hour and a half of riding, to water the horses, which was the Salmon River. One of the horses got spooked, and was very jumpy, we thought maybe there was a mountain lion around or something like that. All three of us saw this large ape looking thing walking along, like he was following us, so James jumps off his horse and threw a rock at the thing, but it wasn’t startled. It just kind of backed off into the woods.

We started to ride again, and we were following the river upstream to his cabins, and the river was way below us when we saw a large black ape looking creature down by the river again. My friend Joe and I were kind of freaked out by the thing, but James said it had happened before and not to worry about it. We got to the cabins later on in the afternoon, about one thirty or so. We grabbed our rods to go to the river, because James said, “there is pretty good fly-fishing down there”. Joe and I were down at the river, when we saw this thing again. We took off and told James that it was on the other side of the river, up the embankment, and in the trees. So, he grabbed his rifle and went to where we were fishing, but it was gone.

So, that night we were sitting on his porch telling stories about what we thought this thing was, when James said “that what we had seen was a bigfoot, and he had encountered him several times before”. James continued, saying “that it goes up into the mountains several times during the summer”. Then we heard something by the tree line, and his horses were jumpy again. So, we just sat there and waited to see or hear anything again. All we saw was a black outline in the trees, which startled us again.

The next day, James's water supply, from the river, was clogged up somewhere up the river. He has this thing where the water from the river drains into, and he can get running water to his cabin. So, we all took a walk to see if we could find the problem, and when we found it, the thing that the water drained into was busted up. It was stepped on by something, and we blamed bigfoot, and that’s pretty much it for the story.

James said “That it wasn’t uncommon to see a bigfoot this time of the year, a lot of people have seen it”. Well, that is pretty much a common thing around there, I guess?

When I got back to North Dakota, I was watching this program on the discovery channel where they were talking about bigfoot, and I saw this same store in Orleans.

OTHER WITNESSES: Just the three of us riding horses.

OTHER STORIES: Only what James had told us.

TIME AND CONDITIONS: During the morning, and the afternoon, it was nice out. The sun was shining during the day, and there was no wind, just a normal summer day.

ENVIRONMENT: In the mountains, with pine trees on the ridges, or whatever kind of trees that was there they look like x-mass trees to me.

Follow-up investigation report by BFRO Investigator Richard Hucklebridge:

On the evening of 30 January 2003, I made contact with M.B., in North Dakota. M.B. is an American Indian, and he is twenty-three years old. He seemed believable in his rendition of his encounter, which took place in Siskiyou County, California, during the summer of 2000.

On the first sighting, M.B. and friends were about 30 yards away, and the creature was on the other side of the river, going in the same direction as they were heading, just walking. That’s when James through a rock at it. The total time of the sighting was about five to six seconds.

The second sighting was further up the trail and they were about a hundred feet or so up the hill from it, and from M.B.’s perspective, on horseback, the creature looked to be about three inches tall. That sighting was very short one, less than five seconds. The creature was still on the other side of the river, and still going in the same direction as they were, which was up the river.

On the third encounter, the boys were standing on rocks in the river fishing, and the creature was just on the other side of the river standing in some heavy brush. M.B. estimated the distance at about fifteen feet away. The creature was just standing there, watching the boys fishing, and rubbing its face or nose with one of its hands, maybe like picking its nose. When they both realized it was standing there, they both turned and took off for the cabin, and James. He said this encounter probably lasted less than fifteen seconds.

Some of the specific questions I asked about the creature are as follows:

*Could you describe any facial features? “Yes, I could see the pupils in its eyes, and around the pupil was a yellowish color, like someone with hepatitis. The nose looked like what a Neanderthal nose would look like. It was not real flat, but still didn’t look like our nose ether. No hair on the face, and the face was dark in color.”
*What would you think its height and weight to have been? “This is an estimate only, it looked to weigh about four or five hundred pounds, and it seemed like it was about seven to eight feet tall.”
*Did it have anything like hair on its body, and what color was it? “Yes it had what looked like a dirty brownish black hair on most of its body, except for the face and the palms of its hands. There were also some spots that were a little lighter in color.”
*Did you see it walking or was it ever down on all fours? “We only saw it walking or standing, but we never saw it down on all fours. When the creature was walking, it looked exactly like the Patterson film that I had seen on the Discovery Channel.”
*Could you describe the arms? “They were large and thick.”
*Could you tell if it was a male or female? “I think it was a male, because I did not see any breasts.”
*Did it ever make any noise with its mouth or any other way? “No!”
*Did you ever smell anything? “No!”
*Did you see any ears on it? “NO! This was no bear, because I hunt bears, and I know what they look like for sure, and this was no monkey or ape ether.”
*Did it ever see you? “Yes! For sure, two times at least. It seemed like it wanted to know just what are we doing here, and/or what do you want.”
*Did you or any one else with you ever check for prints? “No, not that I know of.”
*Did you ever report what you saw to an agency or a friend? “No, just my mother when I was typing this out. I don’t want people to think that I was crazy.”
*In your opinion what do think this creature was? “Well for sure it was not a bear, monkey, or an ape. I think it was something like a Neanderthal.”

In summery: Note, the highway number M.B. was not sure about is 96. Please be advised, Orleans Ca. is just inside the Humboldt county line, but the sightings took place in Siskiyou County. Per the report writer, they turned right off of the highway and headed up the Salmon River, which put them in Siskiyou County. I believe that M.B. had several sasquatch sightings during his trip to James’s cabins, in Siskiyou County. One of M.B.’s first thoughts when he first saw this creature, was he was having a heat stroke, or something like it. I am hopeful that we will be able to talk to his friend Joe and the guide James, sometime in the near future.