An open record of things people cannot explain

Shasta County, California · 1984-08-01 · from the BFRO archive

Screaming or howling in Shasta County, California

I was on a houseboat vacation with my family at Shasta Lake when I was 13. We had put our houseboat to shore in a secluded cove that branched off of the main lake. I went on a walk alone along the shore, and then followed a near-dry creek bed that came down out of the nearby woods to the lake. I had followed the creek bed for about a mile when I came upon two sets of footprints in the mud along the creek bed. Both looked human-like, with five-toes. One set was about a size 14, the other about a size 9, comparing them to my own foot at the time. They were very wide prints, and appeared neary flat-footed. I was curious, though I hadn't made the Bigfoot connection yet. It had seemed odd to me that someone would have been barefoot this far into the woods. The tracks came out of the nearby woods, down to the creek bed, and they then followed the bed for a while away from the lake and into the deeper wooded region. After a few hundred yards, they turned up a slight grade and into the woods on the opposite side from which they started. Another thing that made me suspicious of the prints were that they had crossed the rocky creek bed, which was filled with sharp, shale-like stones. It seemed to me that it would have been a very painful experience for any human to walk those rocks barefoot. I noted that the larger prints were set wider apart than the smaller prints. Still not making a BF connection, I went back to the houseboat and said nothing to my family. That night my brother and I were in our sleeping bags on top of the houseboat, still parked in the same spot. We were both drifting off to sleep when we both heard a very loud scream. It sounded like it was fairly far away. At first, I thought it had been a woman screaming. Then I hear the scream again. It started off sounding like a baby beginning to wail, but then got louder and more high-pitched like a woman's voice in full scream. It seemed resonant, like it was coming out of a hollow tube. As it ended, it dropped down into a low gargle-like growl. Both screams lasted maybe three seconds each. It was then that I put the footprints and scream together in my head. Though my brother heard the screams also, we didn't really talk about it. My brother buried his head in his bag, while I tried to stay awake to listen for more sounds. After a while I had fallen asleep, and awoke the next morning to find that my family had already moved the houseboat out of the cove as I slept, so I didn't get to go back to investigate the footprints again. I did not tell my family about my Bigfoot suspicians, but my brother did mention to me later that he heard a "bear" walking along the shore that night, near where the houseboat was aground. He said he heard heavy footsteps, heavy breathing, and some grunting. I'm not so sure I buy the "bear" theory.

What stood out: screaming or howlinggrowlingfootstepsvoicesfootprints

 

Others who described something like this

2004-01-30

In October 2000, I began hunting on my wife's family land.The land had sat idle for at least ten years. When I began hunting the land, the deer and hog population was quite high. I took quit…

both described footprints · footsteps · growling · screaming or howling · voices · on the other side of the country

2005-08-11

I am new to this stuff, so I won't even try to cover everything related to this trip. That's for others to talk about. I can tell about what I observed and heard. There were about twenty fiv…

both described footsteps · growling · screaming or howling · voices · on the other side of the country

1975-10-11

Late Friday night, Mr. and Mrs. Tallik called in a report to the Bonney Lake Police Department that someone was sneaking around close to their home. Office Hidenrick answered this call and s…

both described footprints · footsteps · screaming or howling · voices · 714 km away

1977-07-01

This was summer, 1977, and I lived in Arcata, California working as a volunteer Botanist for Six Rivers National Forest. I was helping out a graduate student at Humboldt State University wit…

both described footprints · footsteps · voices · 95 km away

2022-07-19

This happened mid July 2022. My name is John. I am a 66 year old man. My wife and I are finally retired and planned on going camping for a week at a time. We have been wanting to go up to no…

both described footsteps · growling · screaming or howling · 60 km away

1986-08-01

This is the honest truth of an experience I had 20 years ago. I’ve been meaning to submit this experience to BFRO for a while now but I wanted to find the right timeframe noted in my journal…

both described footprints · footsteps · screaming or howling · 221 km away

1976-08-01

In the summer of 1976, I (Laurie) was playing along the shores of Aurora Lake when I came upon a very large set of human like footprints. There was two very clear footprints in clay and a lo…

the accounts read alike, found by meaning rather than by shared details

undated

On March 20th 2010 between 3:30 AM and 4:00 AM I heard a loud scream I had never before heard. I was awakened abruptly out of a deep sleep when a very loud animal scream made me sit straight…

the accounts read alike, found by meaning rather than by shared details

2005-04-09

I was camping with family in the big cypress area near alligator alley april week of the 15th. I saw what i thought was a black shadow standing 8ft tall in the woods in front of me. I told m…

the accounts read alike, found by meaning rather than by shared details

Keep reading

There are thousands more like this in the record. Open one at random, or read the ones the most people recognise.

Read anotherMost recognised

Or if something like this happened to you, write it down and we will look for the others who saw it too.

Know someone this happened to?

If this reminds you of something a friend or a relative told you once and never mentioned again, send them this page. Reading that a stranger described the same thing is usually the part that helps.

By emailBy text

Nothing is tracked back to you and nothing is sent on your behalf. The link is just the page you are reading.

This account was written by a member of the public and published in the BFRO archive. We reproduce it with thanks and remove anything on request. Location shown is approximate.