I received this email and spoke to the witness last night. There is a little bit more to the story than what is below and the witness has agreed to come on the show. I think it is a great encounter and really speaks to the behavior of these creatures.
“Hi Wes,
One of my friends referred me to your website and podcast, he suggested I contact you as I had an encounter back in 1987 out in San Berndino county CA while I was 12 years old at the time and was camping with my boy scout troop. (around the silverwood lake area)
We went on a 15 mile hike and camped out over night about the half way point. Late that night I woke up hearing a very large animal approaching the tent. I could see it’s shadow approach and it was walking upright, stooped down to smell the tent and I could hear it breathing very heavily. At one point it pressed a hand into the side of the tent and it had a very human shape with a visible thumb. But it was massive, about 12-14 inches in length.
I didn’t know what else to do so I punched it in the palm at which point the hand jumped back and there was a snorting noise somewhat like it was was startled. After a moment it stood back up and walked away. I didn’t dare look outside as I was completely terrified.
I could tell it was absolutely massive as it stood well over the tent, even when it was crouched it was still taller than the tent which was about 4.5-5ft tall so it was easily 6 ft crouched. We’d also experienced some rock throwing earlier in the evening which I’d never connected with it until more recently when I was watching some programs on tv that mentioned that it was typical behavior.
I’d reported it to the BFRO website a while back and they recently reached out to me by email as there have been a number of recent reports coming from the same area over the past summer”