YEAR: 1982

SEASON: Summer

MONTH: August

STATE: California

COUNTY: Lassen County

LOCATION DETAILS: The incident happened in the Lassen National Forest
on a fire road the runs along side Lost Creek. I believe this road eventually intersects with route 44 to the west. We got to the road from the Lost Creek campground, which is located off of the Lassen Park Road, which is a few miles east of Manzanita Lake. From the campground you walk north about a hundred yards or so to a fence next to the amp theater. On the other side of the fence is a logging road that will eventually bring you to the road in question.

NEAREST TOWN: Lassen National Park

NEAREST ROAD: A dirt forest road 3/4 mile north of Lost Creek campground.

OBSERVED: : In August of 1982, my buddy and I made a weekend trip from Sunnyvale Ca. to Lassen National Park. Having been there once before four years earlier with a church youth group, and consequently having had a blast, we wanted to camp in the same campground and generally do a lot of the things we had done on our first trip, but without the constraints of adult supervision. We where both twenty years old at this time.

We camped at a place called Lost Creek campground, which sits just inside Lassen National Park along its northern border with Lassen National Forest. On the second day we decided to take a late afternoon hike down an old somewhat overgrown logging road just on the other side of the national park/national forest boundary fence. We knew of this road and its destination because we had hiked it four years earlier. This road was lined with tree stumps, and had decades of old logging debris, and it had permanent tire grooves in the dirt. As this road heads north down the slope from our campground it runs about 3000 ft., until it ends at a fire road running east to west. We hiked west on this road about 100 yards to where the road runs along side a small meadow to the north. We hiked across this meadow to a creek called Lost Creek, hence the name of our camping site.

After soaking our feet in the icy water, my friend said we should probably head back up to camp as it was getting close to 7:00pm and he didn't want too get stuck down there while it got dark. We crossed the meadow back to the fire road and started walking east. We then noticed on the road about 200 yards ahead of us, what at first glance appeared to be a large naked man with a dark complexion, walking away from us. At second glance I thought maybe he isn't naked but he's wearing a fur coat with a pointy hood. I remember saying to my friend "take a look at this guy". A few seconds later the figure stopped in its tracks and moved to the left side of the road, the whole time with its back to us. I got the impression that he/it had noticed something and went to investigate. A few seconds later it continued on its way with a very swift and deliberate gate, arms swinging slightly.

I think what sticks in my mind the most was the bawdiness of the shoulders. In fact, I remember this character had a well defined hourglass figure. He/it remained on the road for what seemed like a full minute, the entire time it was walking away from us, with his back to us. The more I watched the stranger I thought the situation was. Eventually the figure disappeared from view, either around a bend in the road or up into forest to the left, I could not determine the direction. We didn't say too much about what we had just seen, however we seemed to walk a little more quickly back to camp. I know I was a little nervous. I can't really put a size to this figure, because of the distance at which we viewed it, but if pressed, I would have to say it was over 6'5" tall and about 270lbs., maybe even 300lbs.

The rest of the evening was uneventful, but the next morning at about 5:45am we both were awaken by what sounded to us, to be a series of powerful yelps and growls coming from the general direction of the area where we were hiking the day before. I don't know if any other campers in the area heard this.

My friend and I never really discussed this event among ourselves; or anyone else for several years, until for some reason, I brought it up once. We still can't come to an agreement on what we saw or heard. I've told my wife about the incident, but very few others. I don't know if my friend has told anyone.

ALSO NOTICED: We did find a dead baby deer that looked like it had drowned downstream in the creek, seemed like it was only a week or two old.

OTHER WITNESSES: Just myself, and a friend..

TIME AND CONDITIONS: Approx. 7:00pm, just before sunset, the weather was clear.

ENVIRONMENT: The area was a mixture of meadow, marsh, and a pine forest with a mountain ridge.

Follow-up investigation report by BFRO Investigator Richard Hucklebridge:

I sent M.C. my phone number and e-mail address, and on the evening of April 22, 2002 he got back to me by phone and related the following information about his sighting that took place twenty years ago.

M.C. estimated it was walking down the trail/road about 200 yards away when he and his friend entered the same trail/road. It never looked back at them, and continued walking quickly, almost at a trot, until it disappeared around a curve in the trail/road, or into the forest. M.C. believes the creature never knew that it was being observed while they were all walking down that same trail/road.

Their first reaction was that it was a large naked person with football shoulder pads on, and they both thought it was kind of humorous. After looking at it a little longer, it seemed to have a furry wet suit or coat on, with a hood, which was light brown in color, something like cherry wood. M.C. thought it was over six feet tall and weighed around three hundred pounds. They never got close enough to see its face, and never noticed any ears on its head.

The total time that they observed it was about one minute, and at that time they never smelled or heard anything strange. Their trail back to camp intersected this trail/road before they came to where he or it was walking, and they never saw any tracks in the trail that it might have made. At that time they had no fear of it, because they never gave it a second thought about it being a bigfoot/sasquatch.

They attempted to tell other people about what they had seen, but were laughed at and were told it was probably a bear or something. But M.C. and his friend knew that bears don’t walk like people for that distance, and at that speed; plus it never went down on all fours like a bear would do. Only later did they come to the realization that it had to be a bigfoot/sasquatch.

After talking with M.C., I believe that he and his friend observed a sasquatch/bigfoot on that hot afternoon in August, in the Lassen National forest.

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