Sasquatch Sightings: Bigfoot Encounters in the Sierras

I was recently contacted, by a name named John. He wrote that he had had 4 bigfoot encounters, over a span of about the last 22 years. I had a chance to talk to him by phone, and I found him to be very enthusiastic to talk to someone who would listen, and not judge. He began to tell me about his experiences, with great detail and enthusiasm. The emotions I heard in his voice, told me that this guy seems like the real deal.

He told me how he's been wanting to describe his experiences, and get some opinions on what he'd seen. John has begun to put his story to paper. Or, should i say hard drive? He's just eager to get his story out. I think, like many witnesses, that John just wanted to get it off his chest, and hoped someone wouldn't think him crazy. I'm going to put John's story up on this forum. I will be meeting with him personally, very soon.

Here's John's first encounter, as he wrote it:

REAL SASQUATCH ENCOUNTERS
by John

First Encounter

My name is John and I have lived in Reno for a number of years. Four-wheeling, camping, visiting ghost towns, hiking and exploring are some of the activities I enjoy. While preoccupied in past outdoor adventures, thinking or having anything to do with Sasquatches was the farthest thing from my mind. However, over the course of several years I have had unexpected encounters with Sasquatches in California and Nevada. Interestingly, though, there have been numerous occasions of tell-tale signs indicating unusual activities that occurred near or around the vicinity of where I was but I wasn’t able to identify the source. Eventually I learned those activities were signs suggesting evidence of Sasquatches. I personally have seen four real live Sasquatches, each at different locations and times. Two of those experiences were extremely close encounters and frightening. In brief, apart from visually seeing these creatures, I have heard their whoop-howls, grunts and growls; and wood knocking. I have also experienced stones, sticks, pine cones, and other debris tossed at me; and smelled the foul stench . . . whew! I’ve seen numerous Sasquatch footprints including those freshly made. And, I have been attacked. On some of those occasions other people were with me.

Having come to realize the number of encounters and experiences I’ve had prompted me to write. I told some of my friends and a few others about some of my experiences but have never blogged or revealed my encounters publicly over the Internet. I am particular whom I share my information with. In respect for life these are living creatures and they have a right to live. This is my letter consisting the first, of four encounters.

First Encounter:

For several years I have explored many wilderness areas, dirt roads, and ghost towns. One place I enjoy camping, in particular, is in an area in Mono County, California. I have camped there several times by myself and other times friends have joined me. During Spring time water flows through the creek down the valley. Cows graze in the meadows in the lower part of the valley and on the other side of the hill nearby. The area is generally peaceful with the exception of noisy woodpeckers. They start peckin’ away on the trees very early. And that irritates me to be awakened that early, before dawn, when I’m camping out.

In 1984, two friends of mine and I traveled there to camp out for the Memorial holiday weekend. Prior to entering Bridgeport, I stopped at the Ranger Station to get a permit for a camp fire. After we arrived to our destination I set my tent up on top of a relatively flat area of an old mine-tailing next to a hill. My campsite is in a valley, a wilderness area of which I have frequently camped at. It is not a typical public camping area. During our last evening there we sat around the camp fire and talked. Later, after tiring out, we crawled into our sleeping bags and fell asleep. Outside there was a slight breeze as the camp fire continued to burn. It was a quiet evening with crickets chirping and frogs croaking.

Later that night the three of us were awakened by the sound of heavy foot steps and branches breaking as something evidently was coming down from the side of the steep hill behind the tent. Dense trees on that side of the hill would have made passing through difficult. On the left side of the hill (viewing from the road), where the trees thinned out, a narrow trail existed leading through it over the hill.

As the footsteps drew closer the three of us started whispering, checking on each other: “Hey . . . are you awake? I hear something out there! Something is coming towards us! Can you hear foot steps? What is it?” One suggested that it could be a bear because the footsteps sounded heavy. I remarked: “If it is a bear it would most likely be walking on four feet. The footsteps I hear sounds consistent as something walking on two feet. Can you hear that?” The others listened closely and said: “Yeah, you’re right, John, it does sound like it’s walking on two feet”. Then I said “listen close and tell me if you hear it lower and walk on all fours.” We listened again and, once more, we agreed. Then, it became quiet.

Seconds later we heard the footsteps walk to the back side of the tent and stopped. Needless to say, we were nervous. The creature started poking against the material wall of the tent and then pressed its’ paw against it feeling around. We heard it breathing a little harder as it labored feeling around as if searching for an opening. Even, though, it was dark inside the tent we were able to visually make out the impressions of the tent wall pressing inward. Twice, the creature pressed against the tent so hard that we thought the tent was going to collapse. Quickly, we rolled away while we were still inside our sleeping bags. We were scared and didn’t know what was going to happen. Fortunately, the tent remained upright.

The creature grunted and growled a couple times when it heard us inside the tent. The growl was definitely animal like, not human. The grunt and growl didn’t fit the sound of a bear. Then the creature backed off and walked to the side of the tent. It reached over poked and felt the side wall but couldn’t find an opening there either. So it walked around to the front side of the tent and moved towards the flap-door. I was able to see its’ paws pressing on the material again feeling around then tracing the door’s edge up and down. Then, surprisingly, it grasped the bottom edge of the tent below the door and pulled it upward a bit while its’ other paw felt around. The door zipper was right there. One would think, if it was human, it would have grabbed the zipper and unzipped it upward. Unable to enter, the creature let go of the bottom edge of the tent, backed off and moved away. It sounded like it was heading toward one vehicle parked approximately forty feet from the front of the tent. Then the creature stopped. We whispered to each other, in question, wondering what the creatures’ intentions might be.

Several seconds later we heard the creature move again. It sounded like it was walking diagonally from the area of the vehicle towards the other corner of the tent. Then, amazingly, a silhouette of the creature appeared through the material wall of the tent as it was passing between the camp fire and the tent. Quickly, I told the guys “LOOK! There’s a silhouette of the creature on the wall”. One of the guys had a good view of it as I did, but my other friend was only able to capture a few glimpses of it. For a few seconds, the silhouette displayed a body from the knees up with two arms swaying back and forth, and it was walking upright. Its’ head was somewhat conical shaped. Without a doubt, the image resembled a Sasquatch (we called it ‘Big Foot’ then). The silhouette faded after it passed around the corner of the tent followed by the fading sound of its foot steps as it headed back up the hill.

The direction of the creature moving around the tent was clockwise. Not knowing what its’ intentions were, it may have been curious as a reason for checking out our camp site. But, what if it did manage to open the tent? What would have happened then? It’s spooky thinking about it! After the creature left we were still scared. None of us wanted to peek outside till morning. As tired as we were we tried to go back to sleep but it was difficult.

Upon awakening we got dressed and went outside for a look. Feeling groggy and tired, we walked all around the tent looking for clues of the creature. Shallow footprints were found behind the tent but they were difficult to identify because the ground was hard there. Searching on we followed through a path, where the creature had presumably passed through, a short distance away from the tent. We found five large foot prints there trailing into the mud, but they were only partial impressions. Only two of those foot prints retained all the toe impressions remarkably well; each had five toes flanked straight across. Compared to those foot prints our feet were very small even with shoes on. I told my friends that “this would have been a great time to have had a camera so that we could have photographed the foot prints”. With excitement the guys agreed loudly “YEAH, we should have brought a camera!” We tried to come up with other ideas for recording but couldn’t. Sadly, we knew we’d have to leave without being able to take some kind of evidence with us proving what we saw. Shortly afterwards we decided to quit our search and started packing. We had other plans for the day and later that after noon we’d have to start heading back to Reno.


Witnesses: John; Ken; and Wayne


John,
The Humdingerguy



He's finishing up his write up on the second, and most compelling encounter, he's had. I will post it as soon as I return from a 3 day trip, high up into the Sierras, with Woodrat. We're expecting some rain and light snow, so conditions will be great for finding trackways. Looking forward to the trip.

Sasquatch: Squatchin with Woodrat

July 24, 2010

Well, it had definitely been a while. I haven't been out squatching since May. With the advent of the passing of my dad, then some personal , and financial setbacks, I just haven't had the opportunity to get back out there. The economy has been tough on a lot of us. This being said, I have now have plenty of time to squatch, but the costs of even taking day trips, is hard for me to justify at this time.

A couple of months ago, I was introduced to a squatcher, who goes by the name, “Woodrat.” I was contacted by Larry, from SierraSquatch.com, who told me about Woodrat's, multiple encounters with squatches, in the northeastern Sierras. Larry thought I might be interested in comparing notes with Woodrat, as we both live in Reno, and are exploring the same general area.

Honestly, I was hesitant at first. It's not that I was leery of sharing my info with him, but I am rather set in my ideas of how I like to act, and what methods I employ while in the field. My approach is to just be normal as possible. I'm just some dude, walking through the woods. I don't try sneaking around. I'm not covered in camo thinking I'm going to outwit any bigfoot into revealing themselves to me. I believe that when I'm out there, that if I get the opportunity to see one, it will be on their terms, not mine. For me, it's pinpointing an area that I suspect maybe a travel corridor for sasquatches, and simply hiking the area, while keeping my awareness sharp, and my head on a swivel, watching for possible signs and/or tracks. Then I hope our paths cross, with a safe, harmonious, outcome. Almost all sightings are accidental, on both the humans', and the sasquatches' part. Correct?

A couple weeks after Larry contacted me, I finally gave Woodrat a call. We spoke for a good hour or more. I listened intently as he recounted his various encounters he's had, in the general vicinity that I had been working. We actually hit it off rather well. Both of us like to fish and squatch, so it's hard not to get along. Woodrat is one of those guys, unlike myself, with the “grande marbles,” who ventures out alone. As I've stated before, I'm a big chicken, so I never squatch solo. During a family camping trip in 2008, a female squatch walked through their camp, at dusk, while Woodrat's wife and baby girl were there alone, as he was out doing a little recon. The wife's brief encounter scared the heck out of her. Now she won't go camping anymore, and no longer wants Woodrat to go out alone either. So, now she's much happier that Woodrat has someone to squatch with. My squatch partner, my nephew Hank, has recently moved up to Salem, OR. So, I'm glad too, now that I have someone to baby sit me while I'm bounding around the beautiful Sierras.

Saturday, July 24, 2010, Woodrat and I ventured out to the area of the northeastern Sierras where he's had his encounters, His area of concentration was just 20 miles from where I had been exploring. Neither of us like to go out on weekends, due to all the possible human traffic, but it was the only day that worked for us, so we went. It had been over 2 months since I was last out in the mountains. I had bad case of testosterone overload, amping up my anticipation for this trip. Saturday or not, any day I get to squatch, is a good day.

At first, we drove through very active recreation areas and full campgrounds. I thought to myself, “Uh-oh.” Then Woodrat veered off the highway, on to a forest road, then a logging road, then another, and another. Before I knew it, we were deep in the forest, at about 7000 feet in elevation. The road, was narrow and dusty and looked like it hadn't been traveled on for some time. Most of the forest was dark and thick, so finding corridors of possible movement was going to be more obvious, and easier to find.

After about 30 minutes of driving down this old dusty road, we turned into a smaller road, about 7 feet wide, overgrown with brush on each side. The screeching sounds of branches rubbing against the paint of his truck, reminded me of nails on a chalkboard. After a couple hundred yards, it began to open up, and then the forest gave way to a meadow. I thought to myself, “This is feeling rather squatchy.”

It feeling squatchy is a good thing. It has been a few months since I'd been up in the deep Sierras, so now I'm dying to get out of the truck.

Woodrat said not to bother putting my 35 pound pack on. We were only going to do a quick recon of the area for squatch signs.

Will follow up on more later.....................

Woodrat as we venture across the meadow. Face blocked out for his privacy. Click to Enlarge

My Friend, Woodrat's, Website

SASQUATCH SEARCHER

I just wanted to make you aware of my friends website, Sasquatch Searcher. A link has been added to the right side of the his page. He is my new squatching bud, Woodrat, who took me up to his area of concentration for a day trip and then a follow-up 2 night trip. I still am slowly writing up what we had seen and heard, and will post it as soon as I am able. It will probably break it up into two or three parts. For now, here's another pic from the trip:

Bipedal tracks through the meadow grass