YEAR: 1995

SEASON: Summer

DATE: 1995

STATE: California

COUNTY: Mono County

LOCATION DETAILS: After some questioning, it was determined that these two hunters went north from Bishop, Ca. on Hwy. 6, and then went a short ways west on Hwy. 120. There they reached a very small town site, determined to be Benton Hot Springs, where there they went south a little ways.

NEAREST TOWN: Benton, CA

NEAREST ROAD: Hyw. 120

OBSERVED: When I was very young I saw a pair of Bigfoot tracks with my father. I’m guessing I was about 9 years old. I’m now 22. My father and I used to go rabbit hunting all the time. We always went to the same place and always saw dozens and dozens of rabbits.

We would get up very early in the morning, about 1AM, so that we could get out to our spot about an hour before dawn. So it was a few hours outside of Bishop, CA. We would make sure to get there early so that we could sit in the car and wait for dawn to come.

Just as the sun would start to rise and there was enough light to see we would normally see tons of rabbits running about, but that day was different. There was not a single rabbit in sight. That had never happened before. We stayed in the truck and waited until the sun was fully up before we decided to get out and take a stroll around to see if there was anything to see. Just before we left the truck my dad asked me if I wanted to bring the camera and I told him "Na, we aren’t going to see anything out here." Ha-ha! Boy was I mistaken.

We took off from the truck and went into the wilderness. There was nothing to see at all. No animals anywhere. We were walking along and suddenly we came upon the giant footprints in the sand. There were two sets of prints, one right next to the other. They were barefoot and looked just like human feet. Right away we knew what they were. It’s a natural thing that goes through your mind. When you see them you say yourself, "Those are bigfoot tracks."

The first sets of tracks were HUGE, and thee times as big as my fathers feet, and he is about 6' 3" with a good sized foot. (He is very thin though). The second set of footprints was the same size as mine. Right next to its parents tracks. The tracks dug deep into the ground and my father and I talked about that. We tried to stomp on the ground to see if we make an indention as deep as theirs but we couldn’t, even with our shoes on.

We followed the tracks and we came to a barbwire fence. On the other side was a paved road. On the other side of the road was a hill that went up and overlooked a valley. I was too young to notice anything about how the tracks crossed the fence and got to the road or if there was a piece of fur on the barbs, so I’m sorry that I couldn’t tell you anymore about that. On the other side of the road there were no tracks and we couldn’t find any more around.

My father decided that we needed the camera, so I stayed at the fence while he went back the way we came to get back to the truck. It seemed like it took forever for him to return and being a little kid I was getting a little scared. But, he finally came back and told me that he could not find the truck! So when we were done looking around we took the road that we had found to see where it would lead us. It took us to a small town that we had passed to get to our spot. So we knew where we were form there and were able to finally get back to our truck and once we were there we decided we had gotten enough walking done for the day so we headed home.

ALSO NOTICED: What was interesting about the tracks that we saw was that when we followed them they stopped at a road. At first thought that would be because someone had made the footprints and then hopped in their car and left. But, on second thought, if someone was making this scene they would want to make sure people were going to see it and would make the tracks much closer to town. Why would someone make fake tracks on the hopes that someone MIGHT see it? When they could make them somewhere that the KNEW people would see it. But anyways, since the tracks did not continue to the other side bigfoot and his kin may have taken the road.

OTHER WITNESSES: My father was the second witness.

OTHER STORIES: None.

TIME AND CONDITIONS: Early morning. Bright and sunny with clear blue skies.

ENVIRONMENT: The environment was desert like, with nothing big and no trees, but it was not flat. The area had sage brush and other desert plants growing there. There was this old cattle herding fencing around this area.

A & G References: Northern California Delorme Atlas, Page 113, Index between 5/6 and B/C.

Follow-up investigation report by BFRO Investigator Richard Hucklebridge:

In the afternoon of March 13, 2008, the witness called me and we went over his track find. The track size of the larger one, as compared to his father’s boots, was approximately 5” longer and 4” wider than his boots. His father’s boots were at least 12” long. The smaller track, per the witness, was about the size of his foot, and he was a 9 year old youth at that time. What amazed this witness was how far those prints were impressed into the ground. He and his father tried to emulate their depth with no avail. He also made the statement that they looked human, meaning that they had five toes on each track.

The witness stated that the tracks were fresh enough, and he thought they were made within the last day or so. He also stated that he couldn’t tell how far apart the larger tracks were from each other, but the smaller tracks made several steps in between the large ones. The tracks were coming from the Sierra Nevada Mountains and headed toward the White Mountains, which makes their direction due east.

The witness and his father followed these tracks for well over 5 minutes, or about a half mile, until they came to a paved road that had a barbed wire fence on their side of the road. The tracks then disappeared from their view, but they never were able to locate them again, even when they went to the other side of that one lane paved road to check on them. The father then left the witness behind and went to retrieve the camera that was in their pickup truck, but couldn’t locate the truck and later came back to get the witness. They then followed this one lane paved road back to a possible old town site called Benton Hot Springs, and then were able to locate where their truck was parked.

This witness didn’t have the exact details of just where this track sighting took place, but I asked him a little more about what direction he and his father took when they left Bishop, California. He stated they went north, and if they didn’t not leave California, they would have to turn west when they got to the town of Benton, California. From that point there is only one way they could go to get away from people, and that would going west on Hwy.120. Continuing on until one gets to a desert location and would have a one lane paved road headed south, one would have to turn south at a very small old town site called Benton Hot Springs. This is my best determination of where this track find took place, and is somewhere down this small road, which I believe is called the Yellow Jacket Rd.

My wife and I were in this area about 10 or so years ago looking for ghost towns and old mines that were located in and around the Blind Springs Hills area south of Benton Hot Springs. There are cattle herding and loading gates in this area along this road. Though the habitat in this area seems unexpected for sasquatches, there are other reports from this vicinity, though not during this general time period. See this report from less than 20 miles away. At this point, there is only a 30 mile stretch between the Sierra Nevada Mountains and the White Mountains, only 9 of which would be considered desert with little cover.

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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