YEAR: 2001

SEASON: Summer

MONTH: August

DATE: 7/15/2001

STATE: California

COUNTY: Trinity County

LOCATION DETAILS: Well, from Bay area take I-5 north to Hwy. 299 then go west on Hwy. 3 North. The campground is right off the road. It was a very long and winding road, and it takes 6 hours to get to from home. It was a long and beautiful ride.

NEAREST TOWN: Weaverville

NEAREST ROAD: Interstate 3

OBSERVED: It was approx. 2 a.m. on a cool dark quiet night. My wife, kids, and me were all in rear of trailer sleeping, which we had rented for the week. We had opened the windows all around the trailer, because it was hot earlier, but left them open after we fell asleep.

I was in a deep sleep, when literally my wife starts smacking and pulling at my arm, as I'm abruptly awoken, she begins frantically telling me in soft hurried controlled panic ”there is something outside”, I cracked my eyes and was conscious, I heard what she said, but was either not believing what she said, or that she wasn't lying, and something was really outside. In her words she heard padded steps for a minute, before she woke me up.

Then what got me was when something stepped on our outside trailer step, and put pressure on the step, which caused the trailer to move. Well, by this time we were both sitting up in our bed, and hanging on every whim, listening in the night. My wife was so scared; she said, “If that door opens I'm going to scream so loud I swear.” At that moment, it was surely a strange eerie feeling, and I remember anticipating the door opening, and how helpless I felt. I was sweating seriously, because something inside of me was telling me that I did not want to confront what was outside.

Daisy, my beautiful Jack Russell dog we brought along who barks at everything, and is always alert, was in the front part of the trailer sleeping on the couch. It was quiet the whole time not making a peep, and when we looked at her, she was like right, no way am I going out there! In the morning we asked our friends if they heard anything, or were you playing around at night? But, with paying it no mind they said "no!" But, I knew it was not in their character. I just don't know what else that would be so bold to actually go right to our trailer?

ALSO NOTICED: Again my dog was stone quiet very strange; my wife remembers hearing padded footsteps walking around the trailer. I could not see any prints, but then again I'm not sure if I overlooked something that might have been relevant.

OTHER WITNESSES: My wife and I, were asleep in a fifth wheel trailer, the rear windows were open where we were sleeping.

OTHER STORIES: No!

TIME AND CONDITIONS: Night around 2 a.m. It was pitch black, and it was a crisp, clear, and very still night.

ENVIRONMENT: Pine forest, on the far side of group campground, by the maintenance area. Desolate area in the deep forest.

Follow-up investigation report by BFRO Investigator Richard Hucklebridge:

On the evening of the 28th of May 2004, the witnesses called me, and we went over their report that was turned into the BFRO on May 24, 2004. The area of the incident was located in the Pinewood Cove Resort Campground, which is north of Hwy. 299 on Hwy 3 next to Clair Engel Lake.

It was about 2 a.m. on their second night at this campground, when they crawled into their beds in their rented fifth wheel trailer, and turned in. About thirty minuets later, "L" heard this creature walking down the hill behind their trailer to her side, and stop just outside. "A" said that all of their trailer windows were wide open, because it was such a warm summer night. He continued saying that "L" finally got him to wake up, and told him that something was outside of their trailer. “When I came to my senses, from being awakened, that’s when whatever it was outside stepped on our trailer step, and caused the trailer to move, and the step to squeak at that same instant.” "A" continued saying, “we were both in a high state of fear”, and that “the both us were sweating, and shaking profusely from the fear of what was outside”, and that “our trailer door was about to be opened.”

I also asked "L" about her side of the incident, and she said, “The footsteps were from a large bipedal creature, because when the foot hit the ground it made a loud thumping sound, and I heard them at least eight times.” She continued saying, “when the creature moved from my side of the trailer to the side where the step was, it never made a sound, and that’s when I thought this movement showed me that this creature had some kind of intelligence.” She went on saying that their little dog “always barked when someone moved inside or outside of the trailer, but on this occasion it never made a sound, and I knew it was awake because I could see its little eyes were wide open and they were glowing.”

Received the following, 4-25-05, through the bfro web site:

SUBJECT: Report # 8729 submitted to Richard in 2004, updated, 2005, and the report writer wanted to clarify his report with a few more details.

COMMENT: Hello Richard: I wanted to clarify what we felt when something stepped on our trailer step in the middle of the night. It may have no significance, but just wanted to clarify. Again the story is true! At the time you called I admit I was a bit excited to final be able to talk with someone who would hear what I experienced.

The area was forested and our campsite was in a private area of the campground. The keeper of the campground was a 60 yrs. old gentleman who kept to himself by his demeanor, which I noticed, and he didn't weigh more than 120 pounds. The other campers in the area were on the mountainous hills above us around 75 yards away, which was fairly steep with a narrow dirt road that snaked its way down. The campers kept to themselves and I had noticed they had extended family, older grandparents with middle-aged people and a few small children. We were all there on vacation and wanted to spend time with our love ones and it was evident by the atmosphere of the campground.

We arrived with my wife's family consisting of six people and her father and his girlfriend who had his own R.V. a little ways away. That night which is still vivid in my mind, but which my wife doesn't want to hear every time I bring it up, LOL. We had a campfire going and were pretty loud enjoying our trip, sitting by the fire cracking jokes and talking about life. That night I decided to scare everyone and went behind the fence, which separated our site from the maintenance area. I began breathing heavy with various snorts and even growled a few times. MAN, I tell you I did get the biggest kick seeing everyone’s face through the fence and wish I had a camera to get all the expressions on everyone’s face, that was definitely priceless! After that though the fun was over everyone got scared and didn't want to sit around the fire, call me a party-pooper!

The report I gave takes over from here, and is very accurate. When "something" stepped on the trailer, the sound when it stepped was just a regular sounding step. Meaning the step squeaked when pressure was applied like a person. The thing was though, what made it so eerie was the movement of the trailer. You see I was awake by then, after being shook by my wife. Moment’s prior to the step I was sitting up in the bed, listening for what my wife described. My dog was quiet, and I felt reassured that nothing was there but then the, step, and the step did not match the movement of the trailer. I saw the whole trailer shake. I was at home when the Loma Perita earthquake of '89 took place, and remember the way everything swayed and the trailer movement was similar, and is the only thing I can use as a reference.

The motion of the trailer is why we were so terrified, and the step was too, but we wondered who would be so brazen to do that. We thought of the people we knew, and so we asked them in the morning, and no one stopped what they were doing and said "no" with not even a shrug of interest. If a human did that, they would have had to be jumping up and down on the step, and then it would have been easy to identify the incident has human in nature. All lights were off in the trailer, besides us, the closest campers to us also had their lights off. The more I think about it I'm convinced of what I think it was. There is no other explanation for it, my wife heard padded footsteps and is 100% percent credible, my dog made no effort to bark, which is very strange, because as I sit here typing she is sniffing at the air and growling at the cats that travel through my backyard. Again I remember the way the trailer shook and swayed, and it did not match the step, which seemed cautious and slow. Everything in the report was accurate but just thought the actually step was not described enough in detail and feel it's the one of the most pertinent parts of the report.

Summery: Neither one of them smelled anything strange or heard any heavy breathing and/or any other sound from this creature. Also, at the time, they never really thought about a bigfoot creature, but now they are not so sure. They just know that it wasn’t a bear, or anything else that they knew about. L.S. asked me if it was important to state that it was her time of the month, and I told her, “Yes!” Because, that’s what probably caused this creature to stop on her side of the trailer first. She appreciated that. L.S. told me that the fear factor dissipated in about thirty or so minuets, and they slowly closed the bedroom windows and then fell asleep. What I came away with after talking with the both of them was the fact that this incident was still so very vivid in their minds after three years. I have a hard time saying in fact that this was a sasquatch, but it very well could have been, so I will have to leave that decision up to the reader. Per the update, the report writer, also wanted to remove he and his wife’s names from the report, due to business considerations.