YEAR: 1989

SEASON: Fall

MONTH: September

STATE: California

COUNTY: Kern County

LOCATION DETAILS: Highway 178, approx 5 miles west of Walkers Pass. It was off of a small dirt road heading S/W towards the base of Pinion peak. The road is directly across street from windmill and old water trough.

NEAREST TOWN: Weldon

NEAREST ROAD: Highway 178

OBSERVED: In late Sept. 1989, I was deer hunting about 5 miles west of Walkers pass along hwy 178. I had driven a short ways off of the hwy and then walked in about 1/4 mile to a rocky bluff that was at the base of a very large steep mountain (I believe it was Pinion Peak). While sitting there in the dark, I continually had the feeling that I was being watched. I have had this same feeling 2 other times, and in both situations I spotted a Mountain Lion watching me from a distance.

As gray light came, I started glassing the steep dense mountain behind me, looking for whatever it was that was watching me. I really could not see very much as it was still fairly dark and the brush was so thick. I cannot remember how long it was that I was glassing the area when a very loud, booming scream echo’s from the mountain behind me several hundred yards up. It sounded almost like a terrified woman screaming as loud as she could.

At first, I thought that someone was playing a hoax on me. The more I looked at how steep that mountain was, the time of day (early morning because I only had gray light), and how dense it is up there, the more uneasy I became. I left the area immediately.

OTHER WITNESSES: Unfortunately not.

OTHER STORIES: No!

TIME AND CONDITIONS: Grey light (early morning), and the weather was clear.

ENVIRONMENT: It was on a steep north-facing mountain slope, with pine a forest and with dense under brush.

Follow-up investigation report by BFRO Investigator Richard Hucklebridge:

I e-mailed the reporting party several days ago, and he returned by phoning me on the evening of 10-7-04. We went over D.G.’s report (he wants to remain anonymous), and he came across as a credible witness. He said that he was in an area that not too many people would attempt to get into, because of the inaccessibility of the terrain.

When he heard this most terrifying of screams, which he said, “had to came from something very large, due to the volume of the scream, and it lasted several seconds.” This made this hunters hair stand up, all over his body, and it caused him to change his mind about hunting in this area on that day. He then turned around and retreated from his perceived prime hunting grounds.

D.G. was a young man with a high-powered hunting rifle in his hands, in a remote and rugged area early one dark morning deer hunting. He thought that he was not afraid of anything, but this scream caused him to leave that area. He is not sure that sasquatch creatures really exist in the first place, but if they do, he would leave them alone, because he doesn’t want to have anything to do with them.

Our witness is still hunting this general area, and this past week end he observed numerous pinion pine trees that have their tops torn off, and he believes that the bears are doing this to get to the pinion nut that are growing on the top of those trees. D.G. said that the trees are 12’ to 15’ feet tall and the top 4 feet are broken off, and their diameters are about 4” inches thick. He has also observed numerous prints, some have claws and some larger ones that don’t have claws, just toes. Many scat piles. I have asked him to please take and send pictures next time out.