Sasquatch Chronicles Blog

A listener writes “What happened to me happened summer 2010 or 2011 I think, very close to Claire’s encounter in Big Sur. I’d say within 10 miles but up the mountains.

I drove up to Big Sur to get away from the Bay Area. Didn’t know where I was going but I had friends up there and I knew some spots I wanted to check out. I just got a pit bull puppy, she was maybe a year old at the time.

I found a road where people were camping at the base of the mountain off of highway 1, and I just drove down it probably 3 miles since the last people I saw, found a cool spot maybe 25 feet from the road that was cleared out and looked like a good spot.

After I made some dinner, I went to sleep when it got dark, probably 8 or 9 pm. After about 45 minutes, I was still wide awake, and I heard the classic freight train sound coming through the forest from down towards where the last people I saw were. First thing I though was it must be a massive bear. I had weapons on me so I got them ready, I assumed a large bear smelled my female dog, and it was ripping through the forest straight at me. It must have ran for 30 seconds or more, then it tripped through the forest right past my tent maybe 50 feet, and as it passed me it stopped quickly. This is when I started freaking out.

The next thing I heard maybe a minute later was something on 2 feet walking straight towards me. At this point my mind switched to this must be some weed growers or hillbillies, and when it was maybe 30 feet away, I yelled, “stop! Please identify yourself” after a pause, it started walking again. Then I yelled “hey! I have a gun and will shoot!” It paused then continued walking. It walked around my tent and stopped in between my tent and where my car is. It was just standing, and every so often would take a few steps in different directions. After maybe 5-10 minutes it started approaching the tent, after I had yelled some select words.

I unzipped the tent and shot my handgun into the ground a few times, and when I did this, I heard 2 different things running in different directions. I really got scared, still thinking this was weed growers that were pissed off. After a few minutes they came walking back in and started messing with my stove and food and stuff. I was having an internal argument trying to figure out what to do, I wanted to run but the direction these creatures were was in between my car and my tent. At a point I kinda decided I wouldn’t make it out of here if I didn’t act first kind of thing. I unzipped the tent and jumped out and let off a couple 12 ga 00 buckshot in the direction of the sounds. It stayed quiet for a while, then I heard them walk up again. I only had a shitty flashlight, but I tried to surprise them with it but they jumped in the bushes, I only saw a large silhouette of one of them.

I started feeling a type of dread that was overwhelming. I went back in the tent, and my dog was shaking so badly I was afraid it was making too much noise due to the fabric of the sleeping bag and tent materials, I was squeezing her to try to be quiet. I sat there holding my dog and shotgun, while they were going through my stuff and I believe they were throwing stuff at my tent. I think, due to the adrenaline after dealing with this for 2–4 hours, I blacked out.

I woke up with my dog between my legs and my shotgun laid over her, still sitting up. I wasn’t worried at all. I damn near completely forgot about the last night, but still thinking it could have been a crazy bear, I looked for footprints and found nothing. My dog was still acting nervous, so I thought I’d take her for a walk because we didn’t get the chance the night before, so I started walking with her. We maybe walked a half mile, and I started realizing something was following me or paralleling me. When I stopped I would hear one footstep keep going then stop maybe 50 years behind me. I was looking and couldn’t see anything. I thought now this was a mountain lion. I was getting my dog excited and trying to get her to run forward so I was between her and whatever was following us. I started and stopped 2 or 3 times and kept hearing an extra footstep inside the wood line. I shot my glock a few times in the direction of the noise, and something took off and ripped through the forest.

At this time I realized I need to leave, packed up and took off. That night I camped near a military base a few miles away, and then went home the day after that. Here’s the weird part. I never thought about it or said anything to anyone about this until about 6 months later, watching survivor man Bigfoot, and everything came rushing back to me. I remembered the whole thing, and realized it wasn’t a bear or weed hillbilly, because exactly when Les was talking about what happened to him, happened to me. I remember sticks being thrown and hitting my tent, I don’t remember any vocalizations, but I know they had me surrounded and would just walk very close to my tent and stand there.”