Sasquatch Chronicles Blog

A listener writes “On a cross country trek from Anchorage, Ak to East Texas I was detoured from my original trek from severe weather I decided to cut west and take 101 south through Oregon and Northern California to link into I 80 and head south. I spent 15 nights traveling in my home made micro camper ford focus with my two large dogs. We made it into the Redwoods out of crescent city California on April 17th, 2024.

We stopped for the night right outside Jedidiah smith state park to disperse camp in a rock quarry. I had a weird uneasy feeling about the place but it was late and we needed to sleep. About an hour after getting set up the dogs wouldn’t settle down, pacing and taking long sniffs in the air. After a short while in the distance to the north I heard deep howling and then two separate return howls much closer. I decided at that point to pack into the car for the night. I turned on an audiobook and tried to settle the dogs. Ten minutes later my car was pelted with rocks. Six rocks total, the last of which chipped and cracked my windshield. I took off back down to the Walmart in crescent city. The next morning still kind of spooked and checking out the map I decided to go ahead through the redwoods to Eureka and then head east to Redding up Highway 299. I stopped at the BLM office in eureka to ask about dispersed camping spots and if there were any reports of weird happenings or anything to be concerned about. He gave me a map and directions to a few places that he liked to camp at and we carried down the road. Every single place he recommended were closed due to a pine beetle they didn’t want spreading up to the redwoods.
With day fading i needed somewhere to stop and I found myself in the famous town of Willow Creek where I stopped at the forest service office right as they were closing and met the most delightful ranger who helped pick a campground she knew was open.

She gave me some old fire maps of the area that even included “what to do if you encountered Sasquatch in the forest”. I made my way up to Horse Linto Campground out in the six rivers national forest. This feeling of the campground was so peaceful and calm, I as the only camper out there was in paradise. I made dinner set up my tent got the dogs on their long leads and sat there listening to the creek rush past.
About 7pm a solo male with a dog pulled up in a pick up as he came in from his window he asked if the dogs were friendly and if I was alone. Good feeling gone. He went to the other side and started setting up, he took a little walk to the creek and came back up to his truck and hollered over to me, he asked if this place gave me the “heebie jeebies” I said no, and he responded with well I’m freaked out, I’m leaving and you should too. He took off and I stayed.

At 7:45 I was still sitting there alone, and had a weird feeling to stand up and walk to the creek bank. I stood up and stretched and the dogs who were snoozing just stayed put. I took a few steps admiring the wildflowers and bugs flying around as I neared the bank my eyes started to scan upwards and 50 feet away across the creek my eyes locked with a very large 8-9 foot tall massively wide bipedal creature. It felt like an eternity that our eyes locked, like looking into the eyes of my great grandfather a rich deep brown, soft and beautiful, wise and knowledgeable.

It was so bizarre. The craziest part was in my head came a very very deep voice, which said, should you choose to stay, you are in imminent danger”. I tried to scream and no sound came out, and as I turned my head towards the dogs and run I glanced back and it was gone. Silently into the thickness of the woods. I immediately unhooked the dogs threw them into the car, the entire tent and then sped back into town. What took me forty minutes to drive up took me 9 minutes to drive down. I sat in the chevron parking lot and sobbed and shook for almost an hour, I called a friend in north Idaho and told her I was coming, that I needed to be around people. I went inside and the clerk asked if I was ok, that she had seen me on the camera. I told her I had a weird thing happen into the woods and that I was freaked out. She just said “yep, weird shit happens out there, you’re welcome to sit here in the lot and collect yourself, but you can’t sleep here. There’s a rest area to the east that’s a safe spot.” I thanked her and stayed at the rest area for a few hours to rest at sunrise decision was made to drive 19 straight hours to north Idaho.

Now I’d like to say, I willingly went solo into the heart of Bigfoot country, was I asking for an encounter, no, was I opposed, no. I have been a believer since I was a teen, I spend a ton of time outdoors I was raised in Idaho and Alaska, I know the flora and fauna, I know what to expect outside and what I saw with my own two shocked eyes was in fact not a bear, or wolf, or any other weird animal that may also be residing in the woods.

I think the first night, was a warning, whatever was out there, didn’t want me out there. The second night I do not feel that it felt like they meant me no harm, that they were protecting me from something else.

My experience has not kept me out of the woods, from north Idaho I took a camp host job for the summer 2024 season in the North Cascades. As I am writing this I am listening to episode #1038 the creature at Diablo lake.”