Sasquatch Chronicles Blog

A listener writes “I’ve always gone camping and hiking for years, but mostly in the Angeles Crest area. In 1975 my husband at the time and a friend went to Yosemite to camp and hike around Tenaya Lake on 120.

Then the next day we were going through the Tioga Pass to 395 and stay in Mammoth Lakes area. Mostly in the Valley called Reds Meadow. Anyway we arrived at the lake in the afternoon. There was still plenty of daylight so we went across 120 to collect firewood.

My husband was goofing around and climbed up on some granite rocks and was yelling and waving. I asked him to please come down because it looked dangerous. So he came down and we were gathering wood and laughing etc. It was so beautiful. In the thick bushes and trees behind us we could here cracking or like someone was walking and making lots of noise. But we never saw anyone. So this went on and I know I felt like someone was watching us. Well the other two must have felt the same because we stopped talking and just stood there for a minute. The hair on the back of my neck stood up. We looked at each other, threw the wood down and just ran as fast as we could back to our camping spot really close to the lake. Then we realized we didn’t have any fire wood. It was getting later and we hurried around and tried to find some wood close to our camp ground. It was getting cold. It was around September. So we started a fire with the wood we had and I guess we ate something. I don’t really remember. Anyway it got pretty cold so we got in our tent and our sleeping bags. We were talking and we could hear animals in the distance, like bears. We knew that the lake was a water source for other animals. I think it was about 11 pm we were still awake and freezing when I noticed that there wasn’t a sound out there. No animal sounds. Not even bears. So I whispered to the guys and asked them if they noticed the dead silence. We were just laying there for a short period of time. Then we heard this roar that was so loud it made me think of the T rex from Jurrasic park. Even though this was years before those movies would come out. But the roar lasted for I’m not sure how long then it went up into a higher scream.

I was so terrified that i almost thought I would have the runs. I was shaking and sick to my stomach, I couldn’t move for a bit. Then we could hear people talking. So we dared to get out of the tent. We saw a group of campers coming our way from around the side of the lake where there is a granite face. Very high. They had flashlights and when they got to us they asked us if we saw it. It ran right through our camp spot. I can’t remember hearing it but there was a faint odor of wet dog.

They said they were leaving and they didn’t know what they saw but they were out of there. We stayed in our tent. Didn’t get any sleep. When the sun came up. We cut our trip short and went home. I thank god that I didn’t see it….And I had another experience on Mt Tamalpais. 10 years later I back packed with a group of people along the coast. We went at night. Midnight. On the way there in our cars I saw something big and dark standing at an angle that no human could possibly manage. I was in the back seat of a friends car. He had a sun roof. i saw this person or thing standing there and as we drove by it heaved a rock as big as a grapefruit at the top of the car. It dented the roof of the car. I’m so glad that it didn’t hit the sun roof. Or I might not be here.

Needless to say I’ve never gone camping again or hiking. In fact I never go in to the woods, ever.”