An open record of things people cannot explain

Shasta County, California · from the BFRO archive

Footsteps in Shasta County, California

Well, first I would like to state that I currently live in the Fresno area. But I was raised in Redding, CA. I have hunted all my life, and have heard various critters around and in my tent. My friend Chris and I were camping out one night during the summer on Mt. Shasta Bally. I figure it was between 1:00 and 2:00 in the morning. My friend and I were awakened by something walking around the pickup, where we were sleeping in the bed of the truck. My first thought was bear, 'cause there are a lot of them in that area. I have had many bears walk around my tent in the Thousand Lakes Wilderness Area near Burney, CA. But this did not sound anything like a bear. It was then that I noticed my friend was awake and looking at me. He asked me, "What is that?" I really didn't know what to make of it. It seemed to be about 40-60 feet away from the truck when we first looked at each other. It circled the truck and when it was near the thicker brush it seemed to come closer. Then it really freaked me out because we smelled a really wild smell. It kinda reminded me of the smell of my dog after he got tore up by coyotes. At the time, Bigfoot never crossed my mind. But my hair totally stood up on the back of my neck. My friend was in the same state. We were both armed with large-caliber handguns at the time but were too scared to sit up and look. We both just laid there looking at each other. I could hear myself breathing and tried to be as quiet as I could. Something inside me told me that if you sit up you aren't going to make it off this hill. This thing circled the truck for what I would guess to be about between 1-1/2 or two hours, moving closer, breaking branches -- what sounded like on purpose -- and making grunting sounds. Some time before it got light, it seemed to move off to the southwest. When the sun came and it was light enough to see we got up and looked around the truck. We never got more than about 30 feet from the truck before we noticed disturbed pine needles and broken limbs on the trees about 6 feet off the ground. My friend and I left that morning and went back into Redding. We told a few friends and my Dad about what happened. He had no answers either for what happened. I can remember thinking that it sounded like something walking on two legs. That really shook me up that day and to this day I will not go back on Mt. Bally at night. I have been back to that spot probably 50 times since then during the day, but towards evening times it bothers me to even be near that mountain.

What stood out: footstepssomething walking upright

 

Others who described something like this

1990-08-08

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2005-01-12

well me and my cousin were deep in the woods deer hunting close to our little camp site when we heard some very loud popping sounds maybe 35 yards away, we froze, tried to figure out the sou

both described something walking upright · footsteps

2007-01-19

On Jan.18, 2007 at about 17:35 my wife and I decided to go out into the woods looking for deer and enjoying the snow in our 4 wd truck. We were driving along and we decided to take a DNR acc

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2004-09-15

Three strange things in three days: I woke up one morning and went into the trailer to get a cup of coffee and we had two dogs and I let them out and the little dog took off somewhere. I dec

both described something walking upright · footsteps

1997-01-04

I was setting some coon traps on the edge of a powerline next to a wooded area after dark. I had some sardines or some kind of fish with me for bait. I was using fence staples to stake the t

both described something walking upright · footsteps

undated

As a young person I vaguely remember hearing something about a creature called "Bigfoot". I suppose I thought he was something the Indians had conjured up. That is how others seemed to think

both described something walking upright · footsteps

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