Screaming or howling in Humboldt County, California

Me and four other boys had found an old logging cabin about three miles up in the woods from Myers Flats and used this old shelter for several summers. One night (the last one) we were all camping for the weekend in this old place that we had fixed up. After cooking the evening meal, we had all eaten and went to bed. Sometime during the night I was awakened by a huffing sound. I woke one of the other boys up and we listened to something slowly working its way all around the outside of the cabin. We woke up the three others and all listened. Whatever it was outside was poking at the old rotted boards around the bottom of the shack. We could hear it shuffle around and pry at some of the boards. Finally it moved around to the front door, which was only about five feet high and Butch got my old .22 rifle and said, "Open the door!" I did not want to open the door but did anyway. Whatever it was, was standing right in front of the opening but because it was dark, all we could see were hairy legs. Butch fired the .22 and this thing screamed and spun around and took off. Needless to say we were scared to death. We heard two or three heavy thuds and then everything was quiet. We tried to sleep but ended up huddled up together in the middle of the floor the rest of the night. The next morning we went out as a group and searched the ground. There was a tore up place where this thing spun around and about three or four indentations in the ground where it took off. There was no blood on the ground anywhere. We packed up and never went back.