I have had 3 big foot experiences in my life, one when i was about 11 years old at an aunt and uncles place in oregon. The 2nd happend about 12 years
ago here in california. the trird was a couple of years ago near lake tahoe.
Although i havent actually seen a bigfoot, the three experiences were quite startling.
The most recent event
The second experience, a friend and I found a fresh track on a 4wd trail, while we were on a mtb ride. We were at about 8500' climbing this 4wd trail
and I heard a large animal moving through the brush just off of the trail. I didnt think anything of it at first, just a bear or deer, maybe a cow.
I went a little further up the trail and I saw friend standing in the trail looking down at something. I thought he had dropped something or a part
fell off of his bicycle or something. As I rode up he motioned me to the side of the trial like he was protecting something in he trail. He looked up
at me and said, "look at these" and pointed to the 1/2 dozen foot prints in the fine silt of the trail. They were about 14-15" long and pressed
deeply into the silt. They came down from a rocky/brushy area went down the trail for a couple of yards, stopped "milled about" then went off the
trail into the brushy ravine I had heard something moving through.
The very fine silt made for excellent impressions, you could see the lines and wrinkles of the bottom of the foot. The foot was very broad and
somewhat flat with the toes splaying. At the spot where it milled about you coukd tell it stopped and shifted around on its feet, much in the way one
might stop to listen. The track was also on top the tracks of our buddies who were a few minutes ahead of us.
While we were contemplating one of us making a run the 30 miles back to the nearest store to get a disposable camera and maybe some plaster, a group
of bear hunters came up the trail and saw that we were interested in soemthing in the trail.
We stopped them before they ran over any of the tracks, they got out of their jeep and asked what we had found, inquireing if we had found bear
tracks, we just pointed to the ground. They took a look and one of them said "that aint no bear track", a couple of the others nodded in agrement.
We told them about maybe going into town and getting plaster and a camera, and they let us know that a couple of the local 4wd clubs were having a
poker run. In about an hr about 150 jeeps would be coming down the trail, it would be at least 5 hrs to get to town and back. The hunters didnt have a
camera either.
They then kind of went off by themselves had a little pow-wow. You could see that they were talking about the prints, gesturing and shaking their
heads. They then got back in thier jeep and went back up the trail. We did the same, our friends would be waiting at the next pass about 5 miles
farther up. As we were climbing I found a spot where the track continued and crossed the trail again. A little farther up we ran into the hunters
again and they had also found more track, then the jeeps showed up and it was all gone.
We told our friends about it when we caught up, and they laughed
and told us we needed to stay off the green. My friend and I essentialy didnt bring it up again for a number of years.I kept an eye on the paper over
the next few weeks and didnt see anything, so the hunters werent talking either.
Then one day about 5 years later I was surfing the web and saw a news report about a bigfoot sighting that had a link the the BFRO. While looking
through the reports I discovered that there have been 8-10 sightings within a 5 mile radius of the place we had our encounter. There was also a
sighting reported the same week and only 1/2 mile from where we were.
It was while reading the reports from around the country, that I found one from oregon the same week and place that i was there. Then it hit me, the
"HOWL".