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Geographical Index > United States > California > Mono County > Report # 27966
 
Report # 27966  (Class B)
Submitted by witness R.M. on Thursday, July 8, 2010.
Possible howl heard by three family members while on vacation at June Lake

YEAR: 2010

SEASON: Summer

MONTH: June

DATE: 30

STATE: California

COUNTY: Mono County

LOCATION DETAILS: The location of the howl was near the Double Eagle Resort and Spa located South of Lee Vining and Mono Lake off HWY 158, which is a two-lane road, which makes a C connecting back to HWY 395.

NEAREST TOWN: June Lake

NEAREST ROAD: HWY 158

OBSERVED: A week ago my family and I went on a vacation to the Double Eagle Resort and Spa in June Lake, California. We stayed at one of the furthest cabins at the resort, which backed up to a forest at the bottom of granite rock formations. These rock formations separated the Inyo National Forest from the town of June Lake.

The first night we stayed at the resort, June 30, 2010, my brother, my father and I were watching TV in the front of the cabin and at around 11:30pm we went out on our deck to look out at the amazing view we had. Within five minutes the silence was broken when we heard a howl in the distance, which sounded like it was coming from the granite formations, which over looked the resort. All of us froze. The sound scared us because we had never heard a sound like that before. The vocalization lasted under a minute.

We waited for another 10-15 minutes out on the deck to see if whatever made the howl would howl again. But it did not howl again so we went back inside and I took a shower. While I was showering my brother and father continued to watch TV, but this time they opened up all the windows in the cabin to see if they could hear the howling again. When I got out of the shower ten minutes later, my brother and father told me they heard the same sound again when I was in the shower and this time my mother who was in bed with her window open heard the howling too. This time there were three howls, which were all shorter than the first howl we heard on the deck and there was only about 20 seconds in between each howl. My family and I stayed there another night but did not hear any more howls.

ALSO NOTICED: I live in the Santa Clara Valley near the Santa Cruz Mountains and the Saratoga Foothills. I have camped throughout California. I know what coyotes, bears, bobcats, mountain lions and owls sound like and this howl was something different. The only thing that the howl sounded close to was a wolf. But I have never heard a wolf before except on TV and to my knowledge wolves no longer exist in the wild in California. Even so the pitch of the howl seemed louder and deeper then any sound a wolf could make. This sounded like a creature bigger than a wolf.

OTHER WITNESSES: The first vocalization my brother, father and I were outside on the deck of our cabin around midnight.

The second vocalization my brother and father were watching TV with all of the windows open and my mother was in bed with the windows open in her room as well.

OTHER STORIES: No

TIME AND CONDITIONS: Between 11:30pm-1am.

ENVIRONMENT: Around the lakes and the resort was thick forest which backed up to giant granite rock formations where the howling seemed to come from.

A & G References: Northern California DeLorme Atlas: Page # 112, Index of B - 1.


Follow-up investigation report by BFRO Investigator Richard Hucklebridge:

I called and talked the witness, R.M., and he seemed like a very personable and a credible person retelling his story. We didn't learn anything too much newer than what was in the report, but he did confirm the location, which was from this high granite ridge which is located on the south western side of the June Lake loop highway 158, where the waterfall comes down that high rocky granite cliff. R.M. also believes that the calls that he and his brother and father heard that evening came from somewhere on that granite rock cliff; which faces east along the west side of that June Loop road.

I had the witness listen to all of our Sasquatch sounds that are on our front page of the BFRO web site, and he stated the following: "I listened to all of your calls and none were exact, but some were very close to what was heard that evening. One was the 1994 Ohio call from Columbiana County; which sounded short like mine, but his howl had a deeper sound quality to it, and the second one was the 1978 whoop/howl from Snohomish County, Washington, which also sounded close, but wasn't quite the howl I heard, because the howl I heard wasn't as long." Per R.M. his howling sound had a humanistic quality to it, but it was way too loud to be a human. The witness further stated, "After listening to this howl, in my mind it just had to be Sasquatch because I couldn't think of any other creature that could have possibly made a sound like that, or even that loud. At least not in my mind."

In Summary: I believe that the witness heard something so out of bounds that he came to the conclusion that it just had to be a Sasquatch. The area in question is a prime area for these large creatures to live, because we humans would have a very difficult time attempting to climb up into those almost vertical granite cliffs.


About BFRO Investigator Richard Hucklebridge: