A group of Navy Seaman decided to go camping during leave. They meet a pair of professors who are investigating the activity of a large creature at a logging camp. Then things get interesting.
I received the following account:
"In the 1980s my dad was stationed at the Alameda Naval Air Station near San Francisco. He and some of his shipmates decided to go camping while on leave.
They drove to a sporting goods store I believe near Berkeley to get what they needed. While there, they met two professors from the University of Berkeley. Apparently, these two professors were "greenhorns" as my dad called them, and knew nothing about camping or supplies so they asked my dad to help them pick out what they needed.
Then, they told my dad that a logging company had contacted them at the university and asked them to come up to northern California and investigate some large animal that was destroying things in one of their logging camps. They told my dad that someone or something was causing havoc in the area and the workers couldn't get anything done, it was terrifying the loggers.
My dad explained to the professors that he and his family operated as hunting guides in Western Colorado (San Luis Valley area near Wolf Creek Pass) so he was very skilled at tracking. They asked if he and his buddies wanted to come up with them and help track.
I don't know exactly where he said they went but I do remember it was near the California/Oregon state line and I believe close to the ocean but I could be off on that detail.
He said when they got to the camp and scouted around the area, they found several giant footprints and plaster cast them. He said it looked like something or someone was scouting or walking around the perimeter of the camp.
He went on that the workers took them to the fuel depot where there were several footprints up to a collection of 55-gallon drums of diesel fuel. Something had walked up to, then around the depot, and then finally picked up one of the barrels and then carried it off towards a nearby ravine. He said that the footprints became significantly deeper as the creature walked away from the fuel storage area which would indicate that whatever had picked up the barrel had carried it without sitting down and then threw both the barrel and also a large tractor tire into the ravine, then it walked back into the woods.
That night, they had a fire going and everyone was sitting around it drinking beers and shooting the breeze. After a while, my dad said he noticed eye shine that appeared to be 8 to 9 feet high just outside the firelight watching them. He told me that he'd quietly work his way back away from the group then he circled around the camp as quietly as he could to sneak up on whatever was standing close by. He said that no matter how hard he tried, (including removing his boots and trying to sneak up in his socks), he never could get anywhere near whatever creature had the eye shine, and that it really frustrated him as a professional tracker because he couldn't get close to the animal. He'd return to the group and 10 minutes later, the eye shine would return and he'd quietly try again.
Over the years, I asked him several times, "Do you think that was a Bigfoot?" Immediately he would respond, "No, I can't say it was a Bigfoot because I never actually saw the animal; however, we did find some very large footprint tracks! I know that there was something really big out there that is a better tracker than me, and whatever it is, it had really big feet! But exactly what I saw out there, I have no idea what it was."
Now, was my dad telling me the truth or spinning a yarn? Honestly, I don't know; however, I'm going to say he was telling the truth about something.
As I've thought about his story I've come to the following conclusions:
-He saw something in northern California that he could neither catch nor track down which really frustrated him as a professional tracker.
-He never altered the major parts of his story. He may have added some details or forgot to share them; however, they were incidental points
-He never claimed to have actually seen a Bigfoot. If he had, maybe he would've bragged about it.
I've wondered if the story grew out of the Patterson/Gimlin encounter. Maybe, but there's nothing that at least to me screams that, but I could be wrong." J
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