My name is Mark Kennedy and I have a good story. It happened about ten years ago while a crew of twelve, including myself was working a contract for the Forest Service to clear a couple miles of wilderness trail.
I believe it was our first night at this particular spot, which was an area in the North end of the Trinity Alps. It was about twenty-six miles into the wilderness zone of the Trinity Forest. Camp was about five miles off the road in a beautiful meadow with a small lake called Red Cap Lake.
We were done with our second day of work on this particular trail. It was a trail that took you through the prayer rocks of the Hoopa and Yurok tribes. Being in the Trinity Alps obviously we were really high up. We started at about 5,000 feet up and maybe went up another thousand. The trail was about ten or twelve miles long and split about three miles south of Red Cap Lake. One trail took you down into one of the many gorgeous secluded valleys in the Alps. The other took you to a point. Literally the end of the trail was on a point that extended out quite a few feet from the true edge of the cliff. At that point we were about 2000 feet above the forest below us. So we were very remote.
In the meadow our first night there we split into two groups trying to find the best camp spot. Really not hard to do, the meadow was just about twice the size of a football field. Half was all knee high green grass. The entire west side of the meadow was the small lake. You could catch pan size trout all day long in that little lake.
Now our meadow was off the main trail which road the peaks of the mountains we were on. You walked down into this meadow from the north end and as you walked you got a birds eye view of the entire area. At the south end of the meadow was a extremely rocky cliff that rose above the lake to about 200-300 feet with the forest ending right at the edge at the top.
So now you understand the area a little as I tell this story. We were just finishing our nightly session to end the day around the campfire. Both campsites were at the south end of the grass near the rocks not far from one another. Everybody had just grown quiet as we all were drifting off to sleep.
Suddenly there was this god awful screaming howling like noise that echoed through the meadow to make it sound like the screaming was coming from all directions. And for what seemed to be forever the strange noise finally stopped and was followed up by one of the trees at the top of the rock cliff getting pushed off. I swear that tree must have hit every single rock that was in its path on the way down. And as it grew closer the more petrified I became due to it sounding like it was right on top of our camp. Finally the crashing noise came to a stop without ever landing on someone’s tent. I still couldn't move though, I was froze in position and seeing the brightest shade of yellow I've ever seen. I think the others were too, nobody wanted to come out of there tents but everybody wanted reassurance of the others. The rest of the night was uneventful.
The next morning we were all around the campfire sounding like a bunch of old bitties gossiping about the night before. We found the tree that came down, it was a full-grown fir, must a been a full size tree when it started down the cliff; wasn't much left of it when it got to the bottom.
I have never heard that strange scream since and have been back in the woods plenty. None of us could come up with a reasonable explanation for what we heard that night.
Shortly there after we were joined by a guide who was Native American. This guide informed us that the prayer rocks I wrote about earlier are on sacred ground and it is believed that there is a Bigfoot protecting that whole mountain. The guide also went on to say that the noise has been heard before but in other places.
We discussed how big of a creature it would take to push over a full-grown pine or fir tree. We know it wasn't a bear unless bears are coming up with horrifying new screams. So it wasn't a bear but it had to be big and strong, the tree circumference was about four maybe five. And we concluded from memory of seeing the tree, it was about 50 feet tall and very much alive. At least the parts we were looking at came from a live tree. Nobody would climb up the easy rocky cliff to see where the tree used to be located. So I couldn't tell you if there were any footprints or not. But I can say that this story was back-burnered in my memory to tell at the campfire for entertainment. It became very interesting when I heard on one of many documentaries about this screaming howling like noise that the Bigfoot has been known to make. When I heard that, all of a sudden that night needed to be shared.
I no longer work up there in the Alps but I think of it and that night quite often. Now, if Bigfoot chasers would like additional information they would have to contact the Forest Service, Trinity/ Siskiyou National Forest.
On the other hand if any Bigfoot chasers would like to do further investigating of this particular location feel free to contact me, Mark Kennedy in Mckinleyville, California. We'll discuss the matter some and see if it would be worth my taking anyone up to the location. It would be an over night event of course and it would be every person for themselves. But a great time, feel free to email me.
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