YEAR: 1968 or 69

SEASON: Fall

MONTH: November

STATE: California

COUNTY: Tehama County

LOCATION DETAILS: After reaching Payne's creek, my father would drive even farther. It was usually late at night when we would finaly arrive and I was usually asleep.

NEAREST TOWN: Payne's creek, Ca.

NEAREST ROAD: Old logging roads

OBSERVED: My parents and I used to go deer hunting every deer season, (usually the 1st. of November) up around Payne's Creek, Ca. We always went with my girlfriend Darla's family. It was a lot of fun. My friend Darla and I would go for long walks in the woods. We loved to see how many animals we could find. We'd see everything from chipmunks to rattlesnakes. We saw a lot of deer, too. Probably more than our fathers ever saw.

We usually walked up an old logging road for a couple of miles and then we would turn around and go back to camp.

One time, I think the year was around 1968 or 69, we had invited another friend, Shirley, to come camping with us. All three of us girls were in our early teens. Darla and I decided to take Shirley out and show her where we always took our walks.

We walked and talked for along time. Seeing all kinds of animals along the way. We were laughing and just having a good old time, like teenage girls do.

We ended up walking a little farther than we normally did. Then we decided to go off the road and walk down the hill a little bit. We came to a creek and we started walking on the rocks to cross it. The creek was about 8 to 10 feet wide, so it took several steps to get across.

After we got across, we saw on one of the rocks, a big red lizard. None of us had ever seen a lizard like that before. It kind of scared us, so we thought we'd better start heading back.

That was when we saw two hunters walking up the hill, the same way we were going. We stopped and let them go ahead of us. They said hello, and went on up.

Because we had walked so far, we started to feel like we were lost.Then we really started getting scared.

I've always had a good since of direction, but I was getting a little worried, too. Then I remembered that we had walked up and down two hills and when we got to the top of the third hill, we then walked down the north side of the hill to the creek. I reassured my friends that I knew exactly where we were and that we would find our way back just fine.

That was when I saw it. I didn't know what it was, I had never seen anything like it before. It came down the hill about fifty feet to the left of where the two hunters had just gone up. It stood two feet taller than the men we had just seen. It's whole body was dark brown, like it was covered with fur. At first I thought it was a bear, but It didn't walk like a bear. It walked like a man, upright and swinging it's long arms. I remember the top of it's head looked flat like it had a top hat on, the kind that Abraham Lincoln would have worn. It moved quickly and quietly and in no time at all, it had come down the hill and crossed the creek. The same creek we had taken several steps to cross, it crossed with just one step. It disappeared into the trees so fast, that I was the only one to see him. I was so shocked that I couldn't say anything. I just stood there with my mouth hanging open until he was gone. But I never felt afraid the whole time.

When we got back to camp, my dad had just came back to camp from hunting all morning. I told him all about what I had seen and he said that he had been on the other side of the creek around the same time that we were there, which was around 12:00 PM. He said that he didn't see anything but he heard a loud sound like a large wounded animal breathing real heavy. The same sound that he had heard several years before on another hunting trip at a place called Brush Creek. Then he made the sound for me. It gave me chills. It sounded asthmatic, like loud moaning breathes. He admitted to me that he was very afraid both times he had heard it, even though he was standing there with a deer rifle in his hands.

A few years later, my family and I were watching T V and a program came on about Bigfoot. It was suppose to have actual footage of a real Big foot. I had heard of the legend of Bigfoot, but I always thought that it was just that, a legend.

When I saw the footage, I got those same chills all over again. I jumped up and yelled "That's it, that's what I saw!" It looked just like what I had seen, except they said that the one on T V was a female because it had breasts. The one I saw didn't and it looked taller, too, so I'm guessing it must have been a male.

It's been over 30 years since I saw whatever it was I saw, and I can still see it as clearly in my mind as I did then. Whenever I tell this story to friends, they always laugh and joke around with me like I'm making it up or crazy or something. I just tell them, "You don't have to believe me. I don't know what it was I saw that day either, but I do know that I saw... something!"

ALSO NOTICED: My father heard loud moaning sounds around the same time and place that I saw it.

OTHER WITNESSES: I was with two other girls, but they didn't see it.

TIME AND CONDITIONS: 12:00 pm cool, sunny day in November.

ENVIRONMENT: There were a lot of trees without leaves. Some oak trees. A lot of big rocks on the ground. We were on a hill above a creek.

Follow-up investigation report:

I talked with witness and the following details can be added:
--estimated to be about 8 feet tall;
--can't estimate weight, but not too fat nor thin, seemed to fit its height just right;
--did not get a good look at the face, since witness saw it from the side;
--its face was covered with hair, the same color as the hair on its body, dark brown;
--it did not have a snout, like a bear; and
--the face was flat.

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