YEAR: 2001

SEASON: Summer

MONTH: September

DATE: 26th, or 27th

STATE: California

COUNTY: Del Norte County

LOCATION DETAILS: Drive to the end of Blakes road and go over the Dike down onto the river bar. Go left at the bottom of the hill and drive straight up to the river. It was directly across the river, which is not accessible from car on this side of the river. If you go on the other side of the river, it's behind a locked gate on Simpson Logging Co. This are is

NEAREST TOWN: Klamath, California

NEAREST ROAD: Blake Rd.

OBSERVED: It was the last weekend of September during the fall salmon run of fishing season on the lower Klamath River 2001.

It was the end of summer, the river was extremely low and I'd just finished cleaning my salmon. It was about 10 oclock at night and I drove up the river to Blake's river bar. This is where the road ends. We were sitting in my truck with the windows down when we heard a sound that I'd never heard on the river or anywhere for that matter. My attention was immediately taken as we could hear an extremely deep howling sound that sounded something like a whoooooaaahhhh. I was a little freaked out because I have never heard anything like this. I remember trying to put a body with the sound and not coming up with anything. My friend and I looked at eachother and said "what the hell is that?" The hair was raised on the back of my neck and I felt very fearful, even though I knew the thing was across the river.

We waited and didn't say anything and within about 3 seconds we heard the same sound again. This time it went whooooooahhhhh, whoooooahhhhh, whoooooahhhh, three times. It was a very deep almost like a moaning sound.

Immediately after the sound stopped I heard the same noise, except this one sounded like it was coming from up around the corner, about a half mile, and on the other side of what is called Turup flat. This one sounded more faint because is was coming from on the other side of this densely wooded area where the river bends.

It seemed clear to us that they were calling back and forth to one another. The one on the top of the river called back only twice and the one across the river sounded off about 4 times. This entire thing only took about 20 seconds and then it was done.

I couldn't really explain what I was thinking or feeling after they stopped but I was very shaken and just sat there for about thirty seconds waiting to see if there was going to be any more sounds. I turned my lights on after I thought that it was over and couldn't see anything because the fog was to dense. We were both sure that we had never heard an animal like this before. Between the two of us we have about 60 years of night fishing and hunting in this area and this was a first.

We both talked about it and felt that whatever it was that they could have come in from either side of the river because the river was so low that it would have been easy to wade across and there wasn't littel traffic in the area. The river was also very warm and it was also full of 30-50 pound salmon that were heading up the river. It was a great time to fish if that's what they doing.

ALSO NOTICED: Not that I can recall. I just know that I've spent the good part of my life gill net fishing at night on this river and I've heard everything from mountain lions to bear and coyotes and this wasn't anyone of those things and even though. Since this has happened I'm very interested in pursuing this thing and getting more proof if possible. I still spend allot of time on the river at night in my jet boat when I hunt and fish and I'm hoping to have another encounter. I also spend allot of time in the surrounding areas fishing and hiking and I hope that something will give me more proof that these things exist.

OTHER WITNESSES: 2, We were just sitting in the truck for about 2-3 minutes and listening to the river and talking when we first heard it.

OTHER STORIES: There have been at least 5 reports in the klamath area over the last ten years. I know that there was a report in Hunter Creek in the mid to early 90s by some kids and some adults.

TIME AND CONDITIONS: about 10:00 p.m., There was allot of fog on the river that night. It was a relatively warm day, somewhere in the 80s. It was probably in the low 60s that evening.

ENVIRONMENT: Heavily wooded area along the Klamath River. They both seemed to be hanging along the tree line of the Turup Flat area. I felt that it might have come from across the river on the Starwein flat area because this is closed off and there's no access into this area. This is also about 4-5 miles down from Blue Creek drainage and lots of open wilderness area.