I had a strange encounter a few years back. To this day i have no idea what to make of it. That is to say, i don't know if it was a ghost, an alien, a demon ect. I Have ruled out non paranormal options for myself and i will address my reasons and justifications.

I was camping at a place called "Lake Pillsbury" in the Mendocino National Forest in California. At the time of the occurrence, there were only 5 of us at the campsite. Myself, my girlfriend, a single friend, and another friend with his wife.

The husband-friend went to bed early. He and his wife were sleeping in the back of his pickup truck for this trip so he climbed in back and went to bed. Me and the other male friend decided to watch a movie on a laptop. Meanwhile the girls sat by the campfire. Sometime during the middle of the movie the girls started screaming. I turned and they were literally falling over themselves running away from the fire towards me and my other friend.

Being this far out, we are always armed. At the time i was the only one carrying a firearm. But everyone had knives. We asked what was happening. The girls said that while they were sitting there at the campfire, they heard/felt something coming through the bushes towards them. They said it sounded big by the amount of brush being disturbed. Me and my buddy looked around with our flashlights, walked all over the area behind the bush in question ect. And found nothing. There are elk who live in this area but they stay far away from people. They run when you come withing 200 yards of them. Also, whatever it was was coming right at a campfire. I Thought it might be some redneck creep messing with us, so i armed myself with my rifle and had the others arm themselves as well. Me and the friend eventually went back to the movie, the girls stayed much closer to us for the duration.

Around 230am the fire was going out we decided to call it a night. This was about an hour after the first incident. The wife went to the back of the truck (which has a camper shell) and closed herself in. The other friend went to his tent and my girlfriend and I went to my tent. I put my rifle away but i did go to bed with my pistol beside me. My girlfriend fell asleep pretty quickly and i could hear my friend snoring away in his tent. I lay there for about 10 minutes trying to fall asleep. But then i heard noises.

Anyone who has payed close attention would know what foot steps on dirt/rocks sound like. Thats what i heard. A distinctive bi-pedal walking on the ground, literally no more than 5 feet from my tent. It was creeping very slowly from outside my campsite into it. My first thought was it might be some creepy forest person, or another camper (nearest occupied campsite was about 600 yards away) and they were coming to steal something. I quietly nudged my girlfriend and whispered "do you hear this?" to her. She opened her eyes and quietly listened. She whispered back "yes, what is it?". We lay there silently for about 10 seconds as it walked around from the side of my tent and into the campsite, it was still only 5 -10 feet away and at this point was directly outside my tents entrance.

I leaned over to grab my pistol and in doing so slightly brushed the fabric of the tent. The noise of brushing against the vinyl fabric is pretty distinct. The walking noise immediately stopped. I had my gun in my hands and the noise was gone. I figured it must have stopped walking. We made absolutely no noise, and we listened intently, but could hear nothing. After a minute of laying there, mentally preparing for whatever this was, my girlfriend said she had to pee really bad. I thought to myself "perfect timing" and took a breath and prepared to confront whatever this noise was. In a quick motion i sat up, unzipped the tent, and had my flashlight and gun pointing towards where i last heard the noise. But there was nothing there. I could see clear across the campsite. I jumped out and started searching around. Remember the fire was basically out (just glowing embers) so the only light was from my flashlight. I looked everywhere, but there was nothing. No tracks, no foot prints, no noises running away. Nothing.

My girlfriend took care of her business right next to the tent as there was no way she was going to go walking into the darkness with something out there. As we were standing there listening and watching for any sign of what made the noise we started hearing rapid gun fire in the distance. Now mind you, this is a forest with permitted hunting, but it was basically 3am. Who hunts at 3am?? It was rapid gunfire and at least 15-20 shots were fired. Even if someone was hunting, why would they shoot so carelessly? If you missed your first few shots your game has escaped. Midway through the gun fire we heard the most god awful screaming. It wasn't human, it almost sounded like a squeal, maybe a pig being tortured. It was unnerving to say the least. By my guess this gun/screaming was coming from at least a mile away, maybe 2 miles. It was not close at all. We eventually decided we'd feel better back in the tent. It took a while to fall asleep but i did eventually.

The next morning i told my friends what happened. The people in the truck heard nothing but the other friend in his tent said he did hear something walking around his tent at some point through the night, but all he did was grab his knife and fall back asleep.

So, what was it??

Was it a person? : i say no, because i'm pretty sure we would have heard them walking/running away from the campsite had they become aware i was awake. If they were experts at sneaking and making no noise, they would have been silent going into the camp.

Was it an animal? : i say no, because whatever it was, it was bi-pedal. They were not hoofs, they were feet. Hard to know if they had shoes on or not, but it was a distinctive heel to toe crunching noise on the dirt. Again animals dont care about making noise if they are running away, and i would have heard it making noise as it fled if i startled it.

Was it all in my head? : 2 of them heard the first incident with the bushes. And 3 of us heard the second incident with something walking around the tents. Shared delusions, im not buying it.

So what does that leave? Alien? Ghost? Some other entity?

Ghost kind of makes sense. Not far from this lake is a place known as "Bloody Rock". During the colonization of California, a town called "Hullville" and "Potter Valley" sprung up in this region. The Indians who lived there, feeling threatened by their expanse began planning war and were thus met with attacks by the Colonists. They eventually decided to all commit suicide by jumping from a cliff onto the rocks below. Several hundred of them. If that doesn't spawn ghosts, i don't know what will. The lake sits over the valley that Hullville once occupied. When they built the Eel river damn, the town flooded and was lost under the lake. Its people all moved to Clear Lake, and made their best attempt to relocate the graves of those buried there, but there are still some under the water. In fact there is a beach called "Graveyard Point" where you can see the tombstones when the water level is low enough.

Alien, well that scares the hell out of me. Why was it stalking us? Did it ever leave? Did it simply cloak or something and watch us looking around?

Eitherway. The incident has always left me wondering. It was nerve racking and im curious what others think. Thanks for reading!

Good story. To be honest with you, without you having seen what it was it's going to be a tough one to debunk. And I'm sure you'll get plenty of people calling you crazy....

Think about the events carefully. See if you can isolate the main events and double-check any extranious information. When a person is in a state of panic the information available to that person is having to go through some pretty strange assumptions. When a carefull analysis of your information still provides a supernatural experience then focus on the aspects that pertain to that. Humans are able to create false memories, but we can also use our insights and intelligence to determine the real from the fantastic.

I dont think you are crazy at all. I wish you had shot the bastard though.

Life is a crazy event. Where are you now? Does this event impact your now? Sometimes a story is a fine tale for friends, at other times a story is an experiece to provide a reflection of your life and how you want to pursue it.

Originally posted by zookman44
Life is a crazy event. Where are you now? Does this event impact your now? Sometimes a story is a fine tale for friends, at other times a story is an experiece to provide a reflection of your life and how you want to pursue it.

We still make our annual trip to that Lake. And have camped there since and have yet to have any experience like it. But i don't sleep in tents anymore. I sleep in my vehicle.

After this event, i felt vulnerable sleeping in tents. I would say that is the biggest impact it has had. I don't go up there (to the lake) with malicious intents. Its always about good friends and good times. If it was the ghost of an Indian, and he was upset about us being there, i would hope he could accept that i had nothing to do with his tribes tragedy. Nor did my ancestors as they came to America long after this.

Everyone can say what they want, but I will tell you what it was, judging from your description. It was a sasquatch. Where did this occur? Think what you want, but they do exist. I have seen one, and so have many others. The squealing sound you heard come from the animal was either due to it being wounded, or sometimes they will scream that way when they know they are in immanent danger.

They always come into campsites around the time it entered your campsite. It most likely watched you guys from the bushes for some time. It was most likely coming into the camp to try and get some food. That is usually why they do it, but who knows what it was thinking. When you hear that extremely loud crashing through the brush, they are all out running, and not worrying about being stealthy, which they usually do around people.

The fact that there were no footprints is not unusual, depending on the substrate...If the ground was not relatively soft then no prints would stick. Did the screams sound almost woman-like? Or were they deeper, and more manlike? It was probably a female, which are a bit smaller than the males, or it could have been a juvenile. Weighing less means less likelihood of leaving footprints. But ya, nothing paranormal...Sasquatch is a living, breathing, flesh and blood animal.

I am guessing that it heard you, and that is when it left. If it assumed you were awake inside the tent, it would do its best to avoid making any noise as it escaped. It left your camp and went to another apparently, and they saw it...And then tried to shoot it. This is why I think science should be out looking for this animal, so people can be educated on it. People get afraid during an encounter because they don't know these animals are even out there. I'm actually kind of jealous to tell you the truth.

I see that you have decided that the event is supernatural. I see that you have determined that the event was the result of an unhappy spirit. Ask yourself what a spirit like that would want? What would give such an entity satisfaction? Enjoy your experiences. If something supernatural wants to intrude then that spirit is in the wrong. The past should not intrude on the present. Ancient spirits have no purpose because they had their chance. The current reality is what is meaningful. If you can gain insight from the spirit, in terms of what is important in the world now, like be attentive to nature, give respect to the environment, place your own experience in relation to the continuous past, this will appease the supernatural spirit. Intent begets intent.

Some good has at least come out of this frightening experience, it made you realise how vulnerable you were sleeping in a tent. I have never understood how people can go from sleeping in a secure locked home, to sleeping on the ground with a thin piece of material all that seperates them from whatever psycho may be wandering around.
Your veichle is much safer, although i would still worry about waking up to find people looking in at me, or hearing someone on the roof. I wish we could carry guns in England.

Well in my professional opinion I think you had a squatch on your hands. I know most people think of the creature as a myth, but science has found hair that belongs to an 'unknown species of primate living in North America', which to me is a Sasquatch. Your encounter sounds very much like others' who have reported seeing one of these animals. Didn't sound very paranormal or extra-terrestrial to me.

That would be scary having just a tent between you and whatever was out there!

Did you happen to smell anything "off" like rotten eggs or mustiness?

Did you pick up any strange vibes (other than the fear of an intruder and the fear of the unknown) like a feeling of of a deep sense of dread?

For some reason a lot of people with Big Foot experiences I've read about seem to have smelled and felt the above.

Just curious.

Thanks!

Originally posted by JiggyPotamus
Everyone can say what they want, but I will tell you what it was, judging from your description. It was a sasquatch. Where did this occur? Think what you want, but they do exist. I have seen one, and so have many others. The squealing sound you heard come from the animal was either due to it being wounded, or sometimes they will scream that way when they know they are in immanent danger.

Yes, I agree it was a sasquatch!
There used to be something in the woods across from where I grew up that made the most god-awful scream you ever heard. One evening at dusk a huge creature 8 or 9 feet tall walked past our bathroom window which is very high from the ground. My sister saw it and was terrified! Yes, they DO exist!

I have read these creatures can make themselves invisible. Maybe this is why the OP didn't see anything, and why hunters (for them) can never find one.

Too many things it could be from your description.

From my own personal experience of night camp visitors, I'd guess it is a rodent or bird.

Believe it or not when all is quiet the sounds can be amplified to sound like larger creatures. I'm a late niter and usually the last to close the camp with any party I happen to be a part of. I've had quite a few encounters with the late night camp raiders foraging for crumbs and a few times I hand fed them each time bigger pieces to see how big they could drag away and haul up to their lair.

What the op describes is the standard search pattern for a rodent or bird and yes they make noise against certain ground especially dry materials or leaves.

I know everyone wants it to be a squatch, but to be honest you wouldn't hear a squatch footfalls for they are powerful and nimble enough to run silent.

There are lots of strange things in those woods, most are easy enough to explain, some are probably just things forgotten to time ect.

There is a strange bunker like structure on a hillside not far from the campsite. To be honest i don't feel it's anything too secret, but its basically a steel structure (just a roof on the hillside) with a stairway going down right into the mountain. The stairway is filled with boulders which are submerged under rain water. At the bottom of the stairway is a steel plate bolted against the structure. Some friends and I managed to remove the bolts and slide the steel plate away and my buddy was able to stick half his body inside but couldn't see much since its so dark and full of water. No clue how far down it goes.

One of those things that spawns tails of secret government facilities and such, but its probably something far more innocent.

It should be noted that there is a dirt air strip here and during WW2 army/navy pilots would train out of this area. So it's possible they have left over buried structures here.