Modoc National Forest Bigfoot Sighting – 1980s – Northern California

I received this fascinating story in email a few days ago. The contributor wants to remain anonymous.

“I have a good story I’d like to contribute, file under anonymous. I can’t be sure if everyone is familiar with Teddy Roosevelt’s story from the Pacific northwest but it has some similarities. . . .

“My story begins with a friend a few years older than me. He has a brother approx. some 10 yrs. older and this took place in the early 80s. He was from Redding and his older brother always wanted to be a Marine. His older brother had 2 close friends who went into the Marines with him; these guys didn’t see combat and were in the Marines primarily for training and soon (couple years later) were back home. They promised each other for the rest of their lives they would venture into the deep forest for approx 10 days a year, packing everything they needed. 4 days in, 2 days rest, 4 days back, give or take. This was the 3rd year and they chose different places each time.

“This story takes place in Modoc Forest. They drove their jeep as far as they could, camoed it out of sight and went in dressed like marines, carrying assault rifles and were looking for something to unleash fire on. They said they had a strange feeling they couldn’t explain, like they weren’t alone and were being watched. They pressed on for a day or two and the feeling got stronger. They report an eerie lack of wildlife or sounds. In fact they didn’t hear or see anything (alive).

“On approx. the third day they all came to the same conclusion, they wanted to leave. That’s strange in and of itself; these guys don’t quit and run from anything and none objected to the idea. They double timed it back to the jeep, uncovered it and started to drive. For the entirety of their trip no animals were seen or heard.

“Just as they get under way in the jeep, one man in back with an assault rifle and also passenger heavily armed, they notice something just inside the brush/tree line making pace with the vehicle. Whatever it was is reported to be at least 7-8 feet tall, looking only at them, and not where it’s going for 1/3 mile, obviously on 2 legs and doing about 15mph in the bush. They all made eye contact with it although the driver only briefly. All report a sinking feeling, mortified and demoralized. The thought of being offensive or throwing down any fire wasn’t there, actually their rationale was lost during the encounter.

“This is the best part: they all report huge red glowing eyes that pierce your soul. Shortly after it vanished back into the woods. They didn’t speak for weeks after, they don’t tell this story to anyone. My friend hounded his brother for weeks to tell him what was wrong, i feel privileged to know. I’ve only told this story a hand full of times. What was it i wonder, big foot, chupacabra, predator, a fawn, mothman, a skunk monkey?

“Fact, after the incident these marines seem to be dealing with some PTSD; did it take their souls? They don’t go into the woods anymore, they’re not who they once were and I’d say scared of the dark is an understatement, although the driver isn’t quite as bad off. There are things in this world no man should know lest he learn the hard way and there’s no going back.”

11 Replies to “Modoc National Forest Bigfoot Sighting – 1980s – Northern California”

  1. I have seen one of these creatures up close and they do seem to have the ability to get inside your head….its hard to explain.

  2. I told my husband we should venture across the canyon from our cabin one morning in Big Sur. He had just purchased a metal detector and we thought we could find some old logging gear or stuff from the late 1800’s up this canyon hill by following a thread creek just down the road from our place and up the south canyon ridge.

    No sooner than we started hiking up this creek from the single lane paved road below, did we hear a loud bellowing that carried on as one big breath had been exhailing this throat gurgling noise. We were only a few minutes from the road below and most of the cabins are built across the street like ours and we knew this property was remote. It is over 1400 acres of rugged terrain but one can see around very well because it had been clear cut of redwoods back in the mid – late 1800’s and had burned before more than once.
    I had brought our Dalmation for the hike and she looked left just like we did for the source of this noise. Nothing was there, not a boulder or redwood stump, deer, just nothing! We looked to the right and it was very still and quiet. My collarbones were still aware that the sound we just heard was unlike anything I have ever heard before. It was a low growling rumble that finished in a throaty gurgle. It made us feel like the intruders we were being on this private property. I asked him, “did you hear that?” but it was shrugged off & we continued hiking up the creek but never spoke about the incident. It felt creepy because it does not take long to gain altitude away from homes along the main creek below and everything is so quiet that all you hear is the Pacific wind. This ridge we were climbing was too steep for houses to be built upon so it was primarily forgotten about, the land always left alone.
    We often stopped to use the metal detector inside old stumps and we were feeling library quiet ourselves, my husband kept his headphones on so the detector would not scan beeping noises. There was a group of redwood trees at the view straight up the hill ahead that were blackened by a previous forest fire and we felt scared of them. We did make it to the ring of standing trees and looked inside a few that were burned through vertically. Nothing was unusual but we just felt nervous and we were whispering.

    We left those trees and found a flatter section of land to walk on across the thread creek and came upon an old logging grade road. It was overgrown with bushes and at times and we had to go above or below the graded road to get around the plant life. One time I just crawled through a portion of some of the overgrowth and I found a tunnel about the height of a wild boar. It made me worry I might stir one awake from a midday nap. So i suggested we walk below the graded road on the ridge parallel to it and we could not believe our eyes when we came upon a redwood tree with branches leaning against it. THese were no ordinary branches! They were tree limbs so heavy you could not possibly budge them out of place. They had been purposely stacked against a lower limb of the redwood tree by something. It was a lean to shelter which faced south.

    We never told our neighbors or landlord about what we heard and saw that day. In fact, my husband would never answer me if I directly asked him, “What do you think hollered at us that time we went metal detecting?” He would make a whimper sound and that was as far as I would bother him because he had been in the military before, Army and he endured plenty more than just hearing a holler. I am intuitive and can only admit that what I heard was warning us to stay away from it’s hunting grounds. I felt bad for it and intruding it’s silent land. We never went back there again.
    Sincerely, RD

    1. RD, it does sound like it could have been a Bigfoot habitat. David Paulides documented a strange stick hut in the Santa Cruz Mountains in his book, Tribal Bigfoot. No other animal could have made that other than a human being… but of course, humans usually prefer homes or tents!

  3. Why did’nt they bring a camera? Why run away? if this animal really wanted them it could’ve over taken them, why run? Thats what is wrong with our so called brave fighting men these days, scared of something and run away like pussy’s!

    1. A lot of people just are not mentally prepared for seeing something so unexpected, and for the fright it can cause. Seeing something that isn’t supposed to exist can put people into shock.

  4. Five different people in my family have seen a bigfoot as we live near huge forested areas. Two family members have heard their calls or been harrassed by them throwing rocks, etc. All of these people are normal and believeable. It’s not something they talk about, but they are not concerned whether people believe them or not. Their educations range from Masters degrees to high school graduate. Most of the men hunt deer in season and love the outdoors. They understood clearly what they were seeing, and it wasn’t a bear.
    These shy creatures avoid human contact and for very good reason. They have been shot at too many times. They fear men but show a curiosity about human children and women, probably because they are nonthreatening.
    I am thrilled to see real scientific research being done on this creature by the different organizations and men like Jeff Meldrum. We should campaign for laws to protect these creatures and make killing one a felony carrying prison time.
    We may be blessed in this country by having one of the largest populations of bipedal hominoids left on the earth and we should protect and care for them.

  5. First of all if Bigfoot is real and he has been seen for hundreds of years. How could he still be alive if he is the only on of his kind. If he isn’t the only one of his kind then I’m pretty sure there would be way more sighting of him. If he does exist then why hasn’t anybody found remains of him. If there are many of him I’m sure someone would have captured him by now. I agree with you on the living peacfully thing. If the government didn’t need to hide things there

    And to tianca there is now proof of people on other planets. I’m sure that he wan’t talking about those kind of aliens you are just using the word for a different context. The ideas that we have about the unknown come from our imagination people wonder if there is other life in the universe besides us and that is all that is the only thing there is to think about. There is no proof. There will never be peace on the planet. Mankind will not let that happen. “Absolute power corrupts Absolutly”. When someone has control and someone will have to have control or the world would be in anarchy, they have power and it will corrupt them. You could go see a Mexican if you wanted but you couldn’t see a sasquatch whenever you wanted.

  6. Why is something that you haven’t experienced considered fake, or not real? Have you asked yourself that? You know we have achieved a form of traveling in space, is it such a stretch to believe that people on other planets have also been flying in space to other planets?

    Let’s deal with what you can handle, simple things. You know that there are Mexicans, people that live in Mexico. Would you have the same opinion of them if you hadn’t seen one yourself? They are also considered aliens, because they don’t live in the USA. Right? But you know they exist and they are real, not fake.

    OK that is one point. So now you know, aliens are just people that don’t happen to live where you do. They are not fake, they are just as real as you are. Agreed.

    Now consider that if you went to France, maybe on an exchange student program, you would be the one that is considered the alien. You would need a passport, shots, a viable history, and no weapons!! So you can get through security! How would you feel if the people over there treated you like an alien? That is exactly what you’d be in their country.

    Let’s take this a step further. Given the fact that we have achieved space travel, it is not beyond rational thought to assume that in, say, 50 years, you could travel in space to another planet. How would you feel if they treated you like can alien? Would you be upset if they rejected you, wanted you to leave because you proved to be too violent? They’d have the right to do that, because you were the alien.

    So, have you changed your take on what alien means? It means, simply, you don’t live here. That doesn’t make you a bad person. That doesn’t make you someone who should be shot on sight, just because you are different.

    You need to stop thinking like this planet is the only one that is inhabited by sentient beings. (smart people) You also need to stop thinking that humans like you are the ruling people of this planet. On other planets, we are the teenagers just getting ready to graduate from high school, and we have a whole lot to learn about other people, who are millions of years past us in knowledge.

    Look at what we have accomplished. We teach our kids to love war and violence. We even have a ‘war president’, self proclaimed. We have polluted this planet badly, even though it is the one we live on, and we have nowhere else to go! We have raped and pillaged this planet until she reels in pain. We kill animals with no thought to what they are going through. And we torture others. We seem to have a death wish to most other peaceful planets.

    I ask you, is that logical??? Be honest.

    Living peacefully is the only way to survive. That has been proven. The other way you die, either as a person, or as a race, or even as a planet. I hope you choose wisely how you intend to live.

    Then maybe, someday, you will be lucky enough to meet an alien, or a Sasquatch.

    Tianca

  7. The problem with that take, Eca, is that one day, you MAY have a close encounter of the kind just described here, and you wont want to face a world full of people who have that kind of attitude.
    Re: Bigfoot-at least keep an open mind. Many thousands of people have seen these things over hundreds of years, and Native American tribes have accepted them as a “part of the landscape” for centuries before the white man got here.

  8. I don’t believe in bigfoot, if their is a bigfoot. then why haven’t I ever seen it? Theirs no such thing as a bigfoot, aliens, ufos, etc… Stop believeing things if you don’t know if its real!

    Until the day that I see a flying ufo or a bigfoot or an alien or whatever, then I will believe it.
    For now, its fake, not reeeeeeeal!

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