Saturday the 25th of July 2009 - I was driving west from Weaverville, California on Hwy 299. I passed Big Bar and I'll guess 2-3 miles west of that Prairie Creek Road comes in from the right on my north side.  It was about 8 pm, just getting dark when I had to slam on my brakes. Right in front of me in my right lane was what I thought was a big man wearing a big dark jacket; he was just standing there.

He was about 100' or 33 yards in front of me. He looked like he had come from the left which would be the south side of Hwy 299. He stood there for a second or two and then turned and went back across the road into the trees.  This was no man.

It looked like a football player in pads. Big shoulders, thick body, not much neck, thick legs, kind of a hunched walk as opposed to an upright walk of a human; arms longer than proportionate for a human. I couldn't see any facial detail. It only looked my way for a second and it was in no particular hurry to get off the road. I'll say it took him 7 or 8 strides to get off the road and into cover…. about 25 feet or so.

I had my window open, so as I slowly pulled up to where he entered the trees I whistled. I turned the truck off but heard nothing. I thought it might be standing still, so I got out of there.  I have seen the Patterson film, and I'd have to say this was close to "Patty". I saw no breasts and I'd bet this was under 7 feet tall, but about as thick.

I have fished most of the coastal rivers for steelhead here. The Smith, Mattole, Van Duzen, Klamath, Eel, Navarro, and the Gualala River.  I have heard lots of stories and never fully dismissed the existence of Bigfoot. I just never had any reason to believe. We heard some screams at night a few times, but you always try to define those as made by a known entity.

I know what I saw and now I believe.
Bigfoot is very real and I'm getting the same giant goose bumps writing this now as I did that evening. He is out there.

T. D.
Additional comments by the witness:
For now, I'll say he was 6'-6", having been an athlete all my life, I'd say 500 to 600 lbs would be accurate. Broad shoulders, which I saw momentarily as he turned from facing north, back eastward towards me then south, his route into the trees. Head perched atop the heavy shoulders. Arms thick, almost the same diameter all the way from bisceps to wrist. A man's arms hang roughly to the top third of the femur, I would say his were to the middle third. Sun was going down, but I was facing west, so detail was murky. Fairly uniform hair over most of the body. Noticed the slightly bent leg at apex of step (like the Patty footage, but going in the reverse direction, from my right to left, N to S.) But I had to sort of self-hypnotize for some details. I probably only saw him for about 8-10 seconds.  No facial features, though the eye area looked darker than the surrounding hair. Didn't see any nose or mouth detail…this is an incredibly harrowing experience. Even though I've heard stories and love the area, the first thing you think is "WOW! This is really happening!" And then your time is up.  I thought after that it couldn't be a hoaxer, as he seemed to walk at a leisurely pace; if I had a gun, I would have had ample time to take a shot. TD

Back to stories
Back to Bigfoot Encounters Main page
Back to Newspaper & Magazine Articles
Back to Bigfoot Encounters "What's New" page

Portions of this website are reprinted under the Fair Use Doctrine of International Copyright Law as educational material without benefit of financial gain.
http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.html
This proviso is applicable throughout the entire website.