Sonoma County, Occidental, California

Back in early 1980 I met a family called the Androde's. They were the typical Brady bunch family and I was impressed with their sense of morality and honesty. They owned several rural acres north of the coastal town of Occidental that they used only for R&R and it was quite remote. I had been there once myself and remember it to be a beautiful little patch in God's Country; full of deep Redwood forests, and loaded with plants and wildlife.

Well, as I got to know the family we were all sitting around a fire in their home in Sonoma County and one of the younger sons brings up Bigfoot. The parents tried to downplay the incident and they all seemed kind of embarrassed and uncomfortable. It took me a while but I finally got them to talk about their encounter. It seemed that most people did not take them serious on their incident and so had kept it their own business.

The two younger sons had gone to "the property" — as they called it — to enjoy a weekend getaway at peace with nature. Their stay would be less than peaceful. I'm not sure what time it was but a horrifying crash above their tent suddenly awakened the two of them. The area they were in was similar to an amphitheater type surrounding and they were in the low end of the down sloping hills. It was a full moon and through the tent they could see the silhouetted trees violently shaking back and forth before breaking off like toothpicks (later determined to be around 5 inches at the breaking point).

They opened the tent and popped their heads out of the tent but could not see what was making all the commotion due to the trees and up-sloped hill. The two brothers grabbed an axe to protect themselves from what they thought at that point was bear, in case it came out of the brush and towards the tent. Then the horrific screams and howling began. They then realized that there was more than one. It was truly bone chilling and continued for several minutes.

Then, the dead silence. They had a feeling that the creatures had gone and waited for about an hour before walking out back to back on the trailhead back to the nearest road. I don't remember if they drove to town to sleep in their truck or went home but I remember them telling me that they left around 2:00 a.m. in the morning. The two were amazing outdoorsman and one had even backpacked alone in some of the most rugged areas of Alaska alone. They both agreed it to be a night neither would ever forget.

The next day the whole family searched the area for clues of the visitors and found only several 5-inch redwood trees broken around their bases at about the 6 or 7-foot level. The ground was disturbed but no prints of what they had concluded it to be by then Bigfoot. Over several months after the visit the family had a couple of other incidence but never felt threatened by the visitors.

The mother told me she was hiking alone one time and noticed a very large wet/muddy footprint on a log near a stream while doubling back and heading back to the property. It was not there on her first trip across the log and although she felt she was being followed had no sense of fear from the Sasquatch as she liked to call them. In her words of wisdom: "They have probably been here long before us and are probably just as curious of us as we are of them. They mean us no harm and probably enjoy the silent company."

Although the visits from the Sasquatches eventually ended as more and more development surrounded their property they were happy to read of other occasional sightings by others in California. The brothers tried to make several plaster casts of the prints and I remember seeing one of them that wasn't actually in too bad of shape for being around for 5 years. I haven't talked to the Androde's for many years due to my career working for the state, although doubt they would mind that I put their story in a website devoted to those who either believe in, want to believe in, or just have a curiosity for the existence of bigfoot.

Officer D. S. Jensen California Highway Patrol, Occidental, California

Report taken: Thu, 21 Jan 1999 02:26:29 EST By Bobbie Short.
Updated: December 19, 2006