Shawn's Experience

Greetings Searching For Bigfoot Team:

My name is Shawn Jones. I am a Patrol Deputy in Oregon and previously a Natural History educator with a B.A. in Science (having zoology coursework through graduate level). I signed the guestbook with just a brief description of an encounter I had and thought I would follow up with this more detailed account.

On November 16, 2003 my friend, my dog and I traveled from Portland, OR to Northern California for some late season backpacking. We stopped at the Aikens Creek campground (West of Orleans, CA and just west of Bluff Creek on HWY 96) at approximately 6:00pm, as it was too late to hike in anywhere that evening and the Six Rivers NF website listed it as one of the campgrounds open through November. As we neared the pay station a sign deferred us to render payment directly to the campground host, and as we approached the host's site it became clear that the site was vacant with just a few small items left behind. So, we took the liberty to drive in and explore the portion of the campground that was open. Driving near the Southern edge (nearest to the Klamath river) we smelled a pervasive "skunky" odor, but thought nothing of it at the time.

Eventually we pulled into a campsite (second or third from the entrance at the foot of a large hill). Our intent was to get out of the pickup (leaving the dog inside), get on our rain gear and set up the tent as quickly as possible, as it was already quite dark and raining. Just after donning my rain gear, however, I heard some distinct "hoots" from within the wood line which were decidedly not owl-like nor quite human-like, but could be most accurately likened to those of an ape with a voluminous chest cavity. I asked my friend if he had heard that, but he had not, as he had two hoods pulled up over his head. I quickly scanned the wood line with my head lamp, but found my weak light became obscured at only about 15 feet through the heavy rain. We began setting up the tent when I heard it again. "There." I said, "Did you hear it that time?"

"No." he responded, but he did pull his hoods down. Shortly thereafter we both heard another set of "hoots".

"What do you think that is?" he asked.

I have had a casual interest in the Sasquatch phenomenon since childhood and find its existence to be scientifically plausible. I am also quite comfortable in the wilderness, having spent much of my life in the outdoors from Alaska to Costa Rica professionally, academically and recreationally, but I never honestly expected to experience anything first-hand with such a creature. So, being educated and reasonable, I declined to respond.

As we continued, we began hearing other noises. First we heard "whacking" sounds of wood against wood (more probably stick against tree). Perceiving this "hooting" and "whacking" as a less-than-friendly display, we became a little nervous and contemplated leaving; but curiosity and the dread of packing up, moving to an unplanned location and reconstructing in the dark, while already soaked; compelled us to stay. So, we continued constructing the tent between periodic scans of the area.

The "whacking" continued and we noticed it would come from different locations in short sequence (too short for one individual to move from point A to point B). Again my friend asked: "What do you think that is?"

I gave the guarded response: "I'll tell you what, I've spent a lot of time in the woods and observed a lot of animals, but I've never heard anything like this." I assume he read through the evasion to the meaning of my response, given the copious usage of the word "Bigfoot" , and images thereof, in the surrounding communities and some casual conversation we had had on the subject during our drive.

Shortly before turning in for the evening, I heard a short series of what sounded like heavy footsteps on the rocky terrain of the hillside, in the rhythm of a two-legged walk. Turn in we did, however, with senses piqued and dog tucked securely within the tent. We slept intermittently and restlessly hearing sounds throughout the night. Most frequently we heard the "whacking"; most regularly a rather hollow-sounding report originating from a point some distance to our Northeast and up the hill. We would, however, periodically hear closer and clearer "whacks" from varying locations to our general Southeast; once hearing a disturbingly close and firm "whack" from our South / Southwest.

I awoke, once, at approximately 3:00am and heard distinct, single-note "whistles" from the general direction of the distant, hollow "whacking" which were, again, decidedly unbirdlike, yet not quite human. Soon thereafter we were all startled upright by a "crack" followed by loud rockslide, terminating distressingly close to our location. My friend informed me he had heard two other, smaller slides earlier that night. After all was quiet for some time (except the perpetual "whacking") we eventually slumbered down again, awakening to sunlight and (finally) quiet surroundings.

In the daylight we observed that the hillside was quite steep, rocky and slightly parabolic in shape, and the rock slide ended up in our South adjacent campsite, leading us to conclude that: 1. Inspection of the hillside would be dangerous and turn up little or nothing in the way of footprints; 2. Sounds could have originated from well up the hill and carried down the "amphitheater" hillside; 3. If it were people playing a prank, they must be extremely dedicated to risk their lives negotiating that hill in the dark and rain and to wait in the woods any given night for the off-chance campers might come by in November; 4. Though rock slides may naturally occur there on occasion, they certainly must not occur on the order of three a night or someone would implement measures to ensure no one camp in that location; 5. Maybe that "skunky" smell we had encountered just previously was not a skunk.

At any rate we drove on the next morning to the Willow Creek Ranger's Office (making no mention of the events) to inquire as to open trails. We were instructed that much of the back country road system (and corresponding trails) was closed due to the Port-Orford Cedar Root disease, but that we could drive into the Horse Linto Creek area and hike along the closed roads. We took that advice and spent the next five nights uneventfully.

We decided to return to Aikens Creek for the final night (Saturday, November 22) to take advantage of the open, flat space to dry wet equipment and see if we could observe anything further. We picked an open site midway between the foot of the hill and the highway, lied out equipment for drying, then decided to day-hike somewhere nearby. We drove up Bluff Creek Road to its closure at the road junction to Fish Lake then hiked 1.6 miles down that road. I paid close attention to the steep clay roadsides, and once noticed what could have been a partial footprint of a large, humanlike foot from the heel (about 4" in width) to a point about 6" forward (and perceivably midway along the length of the foot. I found, however, no other footprints or enough context to draw any real conclusion about the impression.

That night, back at the campground, we kept a large campfire and kept some down and dead cedar boughs nearby to throw in for quick brightness if needed. At one point , my dog suddenly barked and charged towards the trees at the edge of the campground just below the freeway. I halted him and went to investigate, but found nothing unusual. Though better prepared we neither saw nor heard anything further that night. We returned home however with a new awareness.

Audible Encouter 2

In May 2006 I moved to a rural timberland in Clark County, WA near Moulton Falls Park. This is part of a relatively contiguous greenbelt which feeds into Wayerhauser land and then into the Gifford Pinchot National Forest. In late September or early October 2006 I had a friend visiting from out of state. At approximately 7:00 am we were standing outside near his idling Ford F-550 diesel. It was light out, but foggy, and my friend was speaking with his girlfriend on his cell phone.

Suddenly we heard one of the most epic vocalizations I have heard in the animal kingdom (it at least rivaled the call of black howler monkeys in Central America). It was the sound of the classic ‘howl’ or ‘wail’ which has been frequently reported and sometimes recorded. The volume was such that it seemed to originate from the southwest corner of my property, as it dominantly drowned out the sound of large diesel engine and my friend’s conversation with his girlfriend.

Despite its volume and clarity however it had a distant quality about it, as though it originated from somewhere on nearby Bells Mountain to our west/southwest, and lasted approximately 7-10 seconds. I observed my friend’s jaw drop as he stared at me in amazement and ended his conversation abruptly; stating “I have to go!” and closing his cell phone. My friend is an avid outdoorsman, wildland firefighter and hunter. After the call ended he asked “What the hell was that?”

Having heard the exact same sound in alleged recordings of Sasquatch calls, I simply smiled and retorted “Does it sound like anything you’ve ever heard before?” He was at a loss for awhile and eventually came up with “Maybe a terribly sick or malformed elk.” I can say with relative confidence this was no manifestation of an elk bugle we heard.

Return to Bluff Creek October 2005

I made a return trip to the Bluff Creek, CA region in October 2005 with two friends; one of whom is a Natural History Educator / Wildlife Biologist and actually ran a residential Bigfoot educational program for children in the Portland, OR area. Our intent was to locate and pay homage to the Patterson-Gimlin site. We set up camp at Louse Camp with the intent to search for the site the following morning. Later that night another group of ‘Bigfooters’ came in to occupy the site. Among them were M.K. Davis and Don Monroe, though at the time we were unfamiliar with them or their work.

M.K. treated us to a showing of his rendered P-G film and thorough explanations of the more evidentiary frames on my laptop computer. Don treated us to stories of his Sasquatch exploits and a look at some of his hand and foot castings.

The next morning they led us down to the area of the P-G site. One of their party members took us on a bit of a wild goose chase to an area he claimed to be the site, but seemed unlikely. As we returned to the vehicle site we found that the rest of the party had gone to the actual site in the opposite direction (which initially seemed a bit clandestine and suspect). M.K. pointed out some landmarks which were still identifiable from the original film; thought the streamscape had changed considerably since 1967.

As we parted ways later that day I think we all considered M.K. and Don scholars and gentlemen but were still a bit suspicious of the other fellows in their party.

At any rate we relocated to Onion Lake for the remainder of our trip. On our last night one of my companions heard an episode of whooping and tree-knocking during the night. My other companion had selected a site some distance away and as I had fallen asleep before it began (and I sleep like the dead) I did not hear it nor my friend calling to me, petrified from fear inside his tent.

Caveat

Since I began work in law enforcement I have refrained from telling of these accounts within my workplace as credibility is paramount in this profession. Recently however I went camping with two of my more outdoors-oriented coworkers and ‘spilled the beans’. Much to my surprise they both had accounts of Sasquatch encounters of their own; which they had also suppressed and had created a shroud of self-denial around until I broke the ice.

Now I just have to set eyes on one of these noise-makers!

Cheers, Shawn Jones

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   *  Stories From People Just Like You  (Our first story from ROGER PETERSON)
      *  Arizona's Roger Peterson Bigfoot Encounter In May 1987  (READER SUBMIT also listed under Arizona)
      *  Arizona's Roger Peterson Bigfoot Encounter At Gillespie Dam In June 1988  (READER SUBMIT also listed under Arizona)
      *  Rex Houdyshel - Adventures Of A Guest Bigfoot Researcher  (READER SUBMITTED also listed under Arizona)  
      *  Arizona Locations Where Roger Peterson Spotted Bigfoot  (READER SUBMITTED also listed under Arizona)
      *  February 14, 2007   (A story from GREG CHRISTMAN)
      *  February 17, 2007   (A story from WILLIAM H. CONARROE)
      *  Charlene from Oregon   (A story from our good friend Charlene up in Oregon with pictures)
      *  John from the Radio Show   (A story from a listener of the Bigfoot Live Radio Show)
      *  Shawn's Experience   (Shawn Jones shares his experiences about "Bigfoot" for the first time)
      *  Leanne and Adam Smithers   (A newspaper article sent to us from Australia)
      *  Leo Gav   (A RUSSIAN SCIENTIST SHARES INFORMATION ABOUT THE YETI)

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