YEAR: 2004

SEASON: Winter

MONTH: January

DATE: 08

STATE: California

COUNTY: Kern County

LOCATION DETAILS: A few miles from Frazier Park.

NEAREST TOWN: Frazier Park

NEAREST ROAD: Interstate 5

OBSERVED: I am a land surveyor who was performing a large boundary survey adjacent to The Tejon Ranch while driving along an old ridge line road, I encountered a black figure amongst the trees. I originally took it for a tall tree stump or sprag until it began to move. After it began moving I thought it may be a bear. As I came closer, I realized that it was too thin and tall to be a bear. Finally as I came within 75 feet of it, it sprinted across the road and disappeared into the trees.

OTHER WITNESSES: I was the only witness involved.

TIME AND CONDITIONS: The incident occured at midday. Good light, partly cloudy, warm day.

ENVIRONMENT: Hardwood/Pine Forest. Top of ridge line.

Follow-up investigation report by BFRO Investigator Kevin Withers:

John, a surveyor from Bakersfield, took Matt Moneymaker, BFRO Curator Richard Hucklebridge and me to the site which is located a few miles from Frazier Park (directions to site edited). When we reached the exact location John reenacted the encounter, showing us how the bigfoot appeared to be caught by surprise when John crested a hill and suddenly came into its view. The bigfoot appeared to panic and, after a few false starts, ran on two legs across the dirt road from left to right and into some trees.

Examining the area, we were amazed at the amount of pig tracks and spoor we saw. At one point we spotted a wild pig running away from our vehicles.

The site is located in the Tehachapi Mountains – a southern connection between the Sierra Nevadas and the Coast Ranges. This connection allows these animals to move inconspicuously from one range to another, without having to traverse California’s central San Joaquin Valley. There have been several sightings in this general area, some dating back many years.

Here are Richard Hucklebridge's observations and photos:

I was one of the other investigators who was asked if I would like to attend this investigation with the witness and the witness’s wife who took us up and into this remote site. One of the reasons that I was asked is the fact that I only live about forty miles east of this location in the Antelope Valley and have reported on several other sightings in and around this location. Please note that I was not the primary investigator on this report. I only got to hear what the witness said on the trip in and the trip out. I mainly interviewed the witness’s wife who stated that she usually made these remote trips with her husband, but on this day, she had family business at home, and so she missed the sighting and was kind of glad, but at the same time kind of sad that she missed seeing this creature.

The witness was in his SUV 4x4 driving very slowly on a dirt road northwest towards this ridge line, and the witness was about 75 yards or so from this creature when he first spotted it; and his first thoughts were that it was a bear, because he really never believed in any such creature as a sasquatch, so when this thing turned and began running from him in a northeasterly direction, on two legs really fast; at that moment he realized that it was not a bear, but a very large creature that had hair all over its body, moving like a human, but it wasn’t, so it just had to be one of those legendary creatures that was not real in his mind, yet! This shook this very large witness to the bone, which had never happened to him before.

The witness watched it move for about 12 or so seconds running, which in sasquatch time is a fairly long time to watch this creature. This creature was probably looking for something to eat like a wild hog a very short distance from this ridge line. Now just over this ridge line and about 2 or so miles down into the canyon below on the other side was highway 5, which has numerous 18 wheelers and other vehicles traveling up and down that highway at all hours. The vehicle noise that was emanating up from that canyon was almost deafening at that top of that ridge line where the creature was first spotted. In my opinion that is why the creature was probably unaware of what was approaching him, and why the witness got so close in the first place, plus the creature was not quite sure on what direction it had to take to get out of harm's way.

I attempted to follow in the direction of where the witness said he first sighted this creature; hoping to locate some tracks and/or impressions in the ground, but too much time had passed between the sightings and our investigation. I believe that time was about two to three weeks. Over a slight rise and out of sight of the witness, I located a dead bush/tree which at one time was about 8 ft. tall, but my first impression of it was the fact that something large had run through it, because it looked like it had just exploded. I did spend a little time looking for hair, with no luck. The direction this creature took was probably the fastest way for it to get away from the witness.

We all observed several deer and one wild hog while we were leaving that area. What I do remember about the hog was that it was black, looked like it weighed about 250 to 300 lbs. and this critter seemed to be all head and mouth as it moved really fast away from our vehicle. I did attempt to get a photo of it but it came out blurred. Enclosed are a few photos that I took while at the location. Two photos are remnants of where hogs were on that ridge line, scat and a rutting area, and which I believe was going to have been dinner for this creature on that fateful day. The other photo is approximately where the creature was first spotted.

About BFRO Investigator Kevin Withers:

Kevin Withers is a website developer, database application developer, online publisher and entrepreneur in Southern California.