Mendocino County, California
September, 2001 - Hendy Woods State Park, Montgomery Woods

My girlfriend and I were camping along Hiway 128 in Mendocino County, Ca. We stayed at an area called Hendy Woods. Hiway 128 goes N/NW from Cloverdale on US 101 to the coast near the Albion/ Ft. Bragg area, and Hendy Woods is in the redwood belt between Booneville and the coast. There are several stands of old-growth redwoods in the area. We decided to go to Montgomery Woods one morning, being told it was not a camping area, and wouldn't have the motor homes, and kid-filled campsites, and the trees preserved there were spectacular.

We arrived at Montgomery woods about 8 am, and were going to hike the self guided trail. The parking area is small, and it looked like we were the first, if not the only ones there.

It was a cool, foggy September day. About a 1/2 hour into the hike, my girlfriend thought she heard someone on the trail behind us. We stopped and waited, but there was no noise. We continued to the base of a huge redwood, and sat to rest.

The redwoods are an eerily quiet place, with the thick, soft redwood bark and ankle-deep tree leaves and needles absorbing lots of ambient sound. Suddenly, we heard something moving through the undergrowth 20 or 30 yards away from the canopy of trees. It was big, heavy, and moving at a good pace.

I whistled, and the movement stopped. This was as scared as I've ever been. It was silent for a minute or so, then the movement continued. Whatever it was, it was so close, and I was frustrated that I could only see brush moving, but not the creature. It stopped moving about 100 feet or so away, then let out a scream that would scare the dead. We froze, thinking this was it. From behind us, several hundred yards to the west, came a similar scream, as if responding to the first. We looked back, but couldn't tell where exactly it came from. Then the first creature screamed again, louder and longer than the first time.

I can't tell you how loud it was...the lung capacity was enormous. I can remember thinking that we might be surrounded, and that we might die there. Suddenly, the first creature started to move, not away, but parallel to the trail.

There was a bit of a clearing, and we saw the left side of a 7 foot tall, hair-covered biped. I've met Shaquille O'Neal at the LA airport, and this thing was so much bulkier. Huge through the chest and shoulders.

I only saw the left arm, and the wrist was the diameter of my biceps. It looked at us for 2 or 3 seconds, then turned to it's right, and hustled down the ravine. We looked through the trees to follow it's progress, but we had waited a minute or two, and it was gone. M.P.

Received: Friday, October 19, 2001 1:52 PM

© M. P.

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