YEAR: 2007

SEASON: Summer

MONTH: July

DATE: 29

STATE: California

COUNTY: Tehama County

LOCATION DETAILS: Going east on Hwy 36 from Red Bluff, and just east of the town of Mineral, California, and before you get to Hwy 89 there is a campground on the south side of the highway. On the north side of that highway there is a forest road that is numbered 31N17.

NEAREST TOWN: Mineral

NEAREST ROAD: Hwy 36

OBSERVED: We were on a camping trip to Eagle Lake, California
I woke up in the early morning around 3 a.m. to a yell. I thought I was dreaming at first and then it repeated. I didn't want to wake my wife so I whispered her name and to my surprise she answered me by saying, "That's Bigfoot, isn't it"? I kinda laughed and said "I think it is" we've both heard recordings of it on TV, but this was our first "live" experience. Not all recordings we've heard are the same as what we heard. This was a deep human/ape yell, and it lasted 4-6 seconds. Then a pause like it's filling its lungs and it would let it rip again.

As in other reports, I've been camping all my life and heard all kinds of animal sounds. When you hear this one, you know it's something different. Actually, it's beautiful in its own way. I listened to the same yell on the home page of this website just today. It was hard to determine how far off the yells were, but if I had to guess I would say maybe a mile?

About 10-15 minutes later we had an even better gift from the creature. Just up the hill from our campground we heard a loud bang. It was so loud, the only way I can describe it was that it sounded like a car drove into a tree. It was a very loud BOOM! Then one of the campers, who were camped at the base of the hill where the BOOM came from, said three words. I will not say what he said. They did make a fire and I'm sure they were scared. The next morning they were packed up and gone by the time I got up around 7.

The campground host had their lantern on when I got up to listen to the yells at 3 a.m. I think they heard the yells too. I asked them the next morning and they said it might have been sirens. I could tell that she was trying to keep it quiet. She doesn't want folks to be scared to camp, or maybe she just didn't want to believe it herself.

The next morning I took a drive across the Hwy 36 from the campground with my boy. We went on a dirt road just for fun to look at the terrain while my wife fixed breakfast with my daughter. The dirt road we were on was numbered 31N17, and we only went up a few miles and headed back to camp.

But it was up in those mountains off that dirt road somewhere, where the yells came from. The “BANG” was in our campground so it, Bigfoot, had to have crossed Hwy 36 to get on our side. Another note: it honestly sounded like a log connecting with a huge Ponderosa pine, and it was very, very loud.

ALSO NOTICED: none

OTHER WITNESSES: Two, we didn't wake the kids. The other campers were also involved but I don't know how many there were. More than one for sure. I'm sure lots of the other campers heard it that night.

OTHER STORIES: none

TIME AND CONDITIONS: Early morning 3 a.m, very dark, I don't remember a moon. Clear sky, thick woods, Ponderosa pines, furs etc.

ENVIRONMENT: The campground is walking distance (100yards) from Battle Creek. This creek has rainbow trout planted in it and campers enjoy fishing. Fallow the creek up from the campground and it will open up into big meadows posted keep out. The meadow is to the left of the creek facing up stream. The ridge line is west of the meadow and is thick forest, Ponderosa pines and Furs mostly. The campground sits on the edge of the ridge. It's that ridge that we heard the "Bang" that ridge continues North across Hwy 36 where there are lots of mountains and also Lassen National Volcanic National Park.

A & G References: Northern California DeLorme Atlas: Page 58, Index of B-2.

Follow-up investigation report by BFRO Investigator Richard Hucklebridge:

Tonight, January 29, 2008, David and his wife Lucy called me and we went over the vocals and the one tree-crashing bang sound that was heard by him and his wife, and the other campers in that campground during those early morning hours. David advised me that he would like to keep the identity of the camping area confidential, because of the people who were living and working at that location.

It was believed that the campground host and others, like a forest ranger that he talked with a little while before he and his family left for Eagle Lake, said it might have been bears in the area making a nuisance of themselves.

The howl/screams were heard 4 or 5 times, with duration between 4 and 10 seconds each time, and the volume of those sounds was way too great to have been made by a person. David has recently gone to our site and heard the "Ohio howl," which was very close to what he heard that night.

I talked with David’s wife Lucy who also said she heard those howls/screams and that loud bang sound on a tree during those early morning hours.

These two witnesses are very credible in their rendition of what happened during those early morning hours in that campground, and I do believe that there is a strong possibility that they heard a Sasquatch while they were camping at this location.

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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