Sasquatch Chronicles Blog

A listener writes “Many years ago, Summer of 1980. I was 10. My dad was living in a little town called Hayfork, in Trinity County California. Population back then approximately 1700 ish. He lived on a 10 acre patch a few miles up the mountain at the end of a dead end road.

The landscape was an even mix of tall trees, shrubs and bare land. He lived there with his girl friend, her two kids and my brother. They were all teenagers. I was the youngster of the group and only visiting for the summer. They had been homesteading for over a year at that point and managed to carve out a pretty cool spot. My dad built this rugged planked floor cabin with a big wood stove and a split log sofa. Shortly after I arrived they took me down to meet the neighbor kids that lived less then 1/4 mile away. It was a very hot summer night and us kids decided it would be fun to have a sleepover outside. We gathered all our stuff and got settled in. To this day I don’t know what the hell I was thinking, but @ midnight I decided I’d rather go home. The neighbor boy offered to walk me down the trail and get me pointed in the right direction. The moon was out enough to put a soft glow on the road. Their drive way winded thru a dense patch of tall trees. When we got to the end he pointed to the gate in the distance. Our house was probably 100 yards beyond that.

I felt very uneasy about the last stretch. I wanted to change my mind but didn’t want to seem like a baby! Soon enough he disappeared down his driveway and I headed towards the gate. My plan was once I got inside I was going to run like hell to the cabin. I secured the latch and as I turned around, off to my right about 100 feet I noticed movement. There was what I ‘rationalized’ as a man running down thru the clearing towards the thicket of trees…. running beside him was a dog like wolf animal. I was frozen with fear. Fortunately for me there was this huge manzanita bush right beside me at the start of our drive. I crouched down and hid for what felt like forever. The run to the cabin was pure adrenaline. I just remember how relieved I was to get inside that cabin. I laid my head down on a dirty pillow on that hard split log sofa. I could hear small rodents scurrying around under the floor boards beneath me, but I had never felt more safe!!! For some reason I never told anyone. I don’t know why. To this day I still can’t figure out why I never said anything. I wasn’t even sure what I had actually seen. I sure in the hell never roamed alone again. We moved off the mountain that summer.

It wasn’t till many years later that I started openly talking about it. I recently discovered your pod cast and it was just like omg they are explaining what Ive been holding for over 40 years!!! I have no explanation for the dog like thing that ran beside it. Have you ever heard of this? The big foot was tall but lean. The gate was off. Not like us. Not like a scissor motion. I’ve been trying to come up with right word to describe it. The legs moved different. Like if the ground was uneven and you were trying to land on the high spots. But running. And the arms were long and made more of a scooping motion. The moon light was enough to see tho not in great detail. But I’ve never forgotten that moment. I can close my eyes and still see it. Feel it. Obviously I can’t say 100% I saw a Bigfoot. But I can sure in the hell say 100% that I did not see a man walking his dog!”