Sasquatch Chronicles Blog

A listener writes “My encounter happened in 2015. I’ve thought about sharing my encounter this whole time and I suppose I’ve worked up the courage. Maybe my story could benefit somebody out there I don’t know.

I live in Wyoming now but I grew up in Northern California. I grew up hunting and fishing in the Mendocino National Forest which is where my encounter took place. I say encounter although I never got a look at the creature, which is why I don’t share this story often.

I was deer hunting alone. There was a good spot up on the mountains about an hour and a half from my then home in Lake County California. I drove up after finishing my shift at the sawmill and set up my camp in the late afternoon. I decided to head out for the evening, I figured even if I saw something late I could try to get on them in the morning if I didn’t have enough shooting light.

I walked a few game trails through thick oak woods and manzanita brush. I hadn’t seen anything so I decided to walk back towards camp. As I walked along I became conscious of the fact that everything had gone quiet. The crickets had even stopped, and this was a hot late August evening when the bugs are always going. It was then that I was gripped by what I can only described as a primal fear.

I unslung my rifle, a Winchester 30-30, and started to continue down the game trail towards the main road. I made it maybe a dozen steps when the brush to my right just exploded. It was thrashing back and forth maybe 20 feet from where I stood. I was paralyzed. I had a moment of clarity and took aim towards the thrashing brush with my rifle and it stopped. Then the scream/roar came. It sounded like two pitches at the same time. A combination of a woman screaming and a deep bellowing roar. I’ve heard mountain lions scream and bobcats, this was different and so so loud!

I’m ashamed to say I urinated right there. I pissed my pants. And I got this feeling that overcame me. I wanted to just lay down and go to sleep, as strange as that is. That’s all I could think about. I could now hear this thing pacing back and forth in the brush breaking branches from the sounds of it. It sounded so close but I couldn’t see anything, which has bothered me to this day.

I had lowered my rifle but I cocked it and raised it back up. I had this thought in my mind. I was going to die, I wasn’t going to see my kids or wife again, but I was going to die fighting. The fear subsided a bit. And this time when I raised my rifle towards the sounds in the brush the thing made a series of grunts. Then it took off away from me sounded like a bulldozer going through the woods. There was a lone pine tree probably 100 yards from where I was and I saw that tree fall over. Perfectly living tree about 50 feet tall. Then I heard this thing crash away out of earshot.

I ran back to my camp and didn’t even properly pack up. Just collapsed the tent and threw it in the back of my SUV with my sleeping bag and duffle still in the tent. I drove home. Went thru the front door and stood in the cold shower for a half hour. I was sick for days afterward. I told my wife what happened to me at this time. I did go back there two weeks later and could tell you about that if you’d like.

My great grandparents also had two encounters. They lived on the Hoopa reservation near Willow Creek. I’ve also had a couple ghost encounters (at least that’s what I believe them to be). I’m a pretty private person and I don’t like telling this story because I usually just get made fun of.

Thanks for your time Wes and I love what you do, keep it up! Hearing other people’s encounters on your show made me feel a lot better about what happened to me those years ago.