YEAR: 1989

SEASON: Summer

STATE: California

COUNTY: Napa County

LOCATION DETAILS: A very rural area between a national forest and a game preserve. Pope Valley is located in the hills above Napa Valley headed toward Lake Berryessa. Silverado Trail to Hwy. 128 to Sage Cyn Rd. to Chiles Pope Valley Rd.

NEAREST TOWN: Pope Valley

NEAREST ROAD: Hwy 128 and Chiles-Pope Valley Road

OBSERVED: The first occurrence took place in 1978. My father and I had moved into the home to fix it and make it "livable" before my mother and brother moved in. I was 12 years old at the time. The property contained 236 acres of undeveloped land. My father had completed our driveway and was sitting on the porch in the evening when he heard what he thought was me walking around the corner of the house in the freshly laid gravel. Since I'm relaying this story to you, you've probably figured out it wasn't me but something else he was faced with, which quickly turned and ran away when it saw him, leaving behind a "wild", "musty", "skunk-like" smell. Which hung around about 30 minutes (unlike a skunk [ed: odor], which hangs around for days). Over the next ten to twelve years we had other "visits". Sometimes two or three in the same summer, and then we would maybe go two years without one. They ranged from footprints, to "screams", to smells.

Needless to say I took up an interest in sasquatch. I was at the same time intrigued and afraid. I had "avoided" actually seeing one with my own eyes for about nine years, and with that, I could somehow write it off as actually existing (pretty dumb in retrospect with the physical evidence and the number of witnesses in Pope Valley, who incidentally didn't want to talk about it either).

My meeting came one night when me and a friend of mine were sitting on my parents' porch, "he" came walking over the crest in front the house, spotted us and took off running like a middle-linebacker in the NFL. I kept waiting, (and hoping), for it to get down on all fours but it never did. I turned to my friend and he was as shocked and afraid as I was so I knew I had actually seen this thing. It was about 7' tall with what looked like grayish-brown hair covering it from head to toe. The sighting lasted about 5-10 seconds.

OTHER WITNESSES: Over the years, three family members and four friends (this is not including other Pope Valley citizens who had also shared stories with our family).

OTHER STORIES: I'm reluctant to fill this section out for the fact that I was not personally involved in these sightings, but I'll relay some that might be of use to you. One of our neighbors actually had one try to enter their house, but frightened it away with a gun blast. Others told us of livestock acting up and they had thought they had seen someone trying to steal or harass their cattle. When he called out to this "person", "he" ran off into the woods. That's when he noticed it wasn't a person. But all spoke of the stench.

TIME AND CONDITIONS: 1978-89, Summer, May - Sept.

Sightings usually occurred in early evenings but sometimes early morning just before daybreak.

ENVIRONMENT: Geography: All of the sightings and "soundings" happened in a general area of about three miles around the house I grew up in. It is a mountainous wooded area with lakes and streams. In the later years, vineyards were planted in this area.

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