YEAR: late 70's

SEASON: Summer

STATE: California

COUNTY: Siskiyou County

LOCATION DETAILS: On a very primitive private piece of land right near a river also were at an active animal crossing for the river.

NEAREST TOWN: Happy Camp

NEAREST ROAD: Highway 96.

OBSERVED: It must have been late 70’s; my family and I were camping in a very primitive area near Happy Camp, California on a friend of my fathers land. I was around 8 or 10. We were camped on a river, with no one around for miles, and deer would frequently cross the river at our campsite. We kept our trash bagged up approx 30 yards from our camping area to deter bears from being drawn close to the camp area. We had 2 adult dogs and 5 newborn puppies as well. The female dog had pups on the trip.

It was late at night approx 10 pm and my sister and I were in our tents sleeping and my parents were at the fire talking. My father put a few paper bags on the fire which caused it to rise quite dramatically and that’s when it started. From approx 50 yards near the trash area, came the loudest shrillest most powerful scream that my first thought was a fire engine (I was young). The adult dogs, including the protective mother started whimpering. They were medium sized dogs, not huge but not small either.

The scream started traveling down river at a rapid pace. It died off to a deep growl. Whatever it was, it was very large, you could feel the immensity. You could hear this thing for what seemed to me was an eternity but honestly was probably a good few minutes.

I went to the bottom of my sleeping bag and all I can remember is that I was terrified. My sister was awake at this point and the next thing I remember was my father unzipping the tent asking us if we had heard that, we replied and the next question was if we wanted to go or stay. Now, my father was a forest fire fighter for 12 years and an avid hunter and outdoorsman. He was one of the first people to have been helicoptered into a fire in California, and he had heard just about everything in the woods. This man was scared. Unfortunately he did not bring his rifle with us on that trip he always had his trusty 30-30, why not this time I don’t know. I remember seeing the fear in his eyes, and I was already scared, so it was unanimous. We packed up that night and drove 8 hours to our home in Ventura California.

We had never thought about a Sasquatch up until that point. It wasn’t until we were watching an episode of "In Search Of" with Leonard Nemoy back in the day that they had what they said was an actual Sasquatch vocalization. I remember all of us watching it in our living room and hearing that noise on the TV and all of us looked at each other, it was the same noise.
To this day I wish to god we would have stayed until morning to see footprints or something.

My parents were very no nonsense nonbelievers in just about all questionable things. Now we all believe in Sasquatch. Why did the dogs whimper? What was the huge animal that made that sound traveling so fast? What made my father so afraid that he packed us up and we left at midnight for an 8 hour plus drive home? I wish we would have stuck it out until daybreak.

ALSO NOTICED: The dogs whimpering was very odd, they were obviously affraid of whatever it was.

OTHER WITNESSES: My father, mother and sister.

TIME AND CONDITIONS: Approx 10PM

ENVIRONMENT: A dense forrest, with a meadow nearby.

Follow-up investigation report by BFRO Investigator Richard Hucklebridge:

JV called me from the East coast tonight February 28, 2006, and went over his recollections. His memory of it is still very vivid in his mind, because of how his outdoor family reacted to the screaming sounds. JV clamed that this creature kept up those screaming sounds for approximately 5 or more minutes as it moved off down the river and away from their camping area. The father is now deceased, At this time the mother doesn’t want to talk about that experience.

About BFRO Investigator Richard Hucklebridge:

• Four years in the United States Navy, 1955-1959 (Combat Air Crewman on P4M Mercator Patrol Aircraft)
• 37 years in the aerospace industry: 33 years with General Electric at Edwards AFB; More than 5 years with the Northrop Grumman Corp. at Edwards AFB (Flight Line Mechanic on the B-2 Bomber).
• During 20 of those years at Edwards he was a Reserve Deputy Sheriff for the County of Los Angeles.

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