Typical Humboldt County terrain

Introduction

For many years I've been curious about the reality of Sasquatch, so when I saw an ad seeking someone with video production experience to document an upcoming Memorial Day Weekend expedition with BFRO field researchers, I jumped at the chance.

Between May 23 and May 26 I spent three days and three lightness nights under the stars on uncharted logging roads in the extreme Pacific Northwest part of California in Humboldt County. Expedition members included expedition leader John Freitas, BFRO Northern California Curator, BFRO researchers Tom, an active duty Army officer serving in California and Jim, a Del Norte County schoolteacher. Tom became interested when he saw a Sasquatch as a kid with his family in Washington State back in 1979. World-class surfer, roadie, Sasquatch hunter and local guide Jim "Bobo" McCoy also joined us. Bobo has been involved in several up-close Sasquatch experiences, including one with John last year.

John Freitas is well known for his Project Night Scream, in which recordings of alleged Sasquatch, Mountain Apes and other simian sounds are broadcast in the field in an attempt to attract Sasquatch. You can find out more about previous Project Night Scream expeditions at John's Website.

Location Background

Humboldt County, located in Northwest California, is the southern gateway to the Pacific Northwest. The County is bordered on the north by Del Norte County; on the east by Siskiyou and Trinity counties; on the south by Mendocino County and on the west by the Pacific Ocean. According to the county, Humboldt encompasses 2.3 million acres, 80 percent of which is forestlands, protected redwoods and recreation areas.

Humboldt County is home to ten State Parks and also home to the Redwood National and State Parks, which have been designated as a United Nations Biosphere Region and World Heritage Site. The World Wildlife Fund has identified the County as part of one of the most diverse eco-regions left on the planet and named it to its Global 200 list.

According to Humboldt County, land use is 74% forests, 10% agriculture, 6% public use, 4% residential, 3% water resources, 2% industrial and 1% commercial. The northern part of the County includes the City of Trinidad, Orick; Redwood National Park; Prairie Creek and Humboldt Lagoons State Parks; and several State Beaches. The eastern part of the County includes Willow Creek, Hoopa Valley Indian Reservation, Orleans, and a great deal of Six Rivers National Forest land. Our expedition was to trek the forest service and uncharted logging roads between Orick and the Hoopa Valley Indian Reservation.

According to Humboldt State University, "?the northward migration of The Mendocino triple junction (where the Pacific, North American, and Gorda plates meet) has produced strong compression and rapid rates of uplift (up to 3 meters per 1,000 years) in Humboldt County. Seismic activity, still-growing Pleistocene folds, active faults, and flights of raised marine and fluvial terraces are products of this tectonism."

Humboldt County is an area of moderate temperatures and considerable precipitation. In most years, rainfall is experienced each month of the year. Seasonal totals average more than 40 inches in the driest area, and exceed 100 inches in the zones of heavy precipitation. Because of the moisture and moderate temperature the average relative humidity is high. Largely as a result of the proximity of the cool Pacific Ocean, the adjoining coastal area has one of the coolest, most stable temperature regimes to be found anywhere. With increasing distance from the ocean, the marine influence is less pronounced, and inland areas experience wider variations of temperature and lower humidities.

Temperatures along the coast vary only 10 degrees from summer to winter, although a greater range is found over inland areas. Temperatures of 32 degrees or lower are experienced nearly every winter throughout the area, and colder temperatures are common in the interior. Maximum readings for the year often do not exceed 80 on the coast, while 100 degree plus readings occur frequently in the mountain valleys.

Humboldt County offers a diverse and unique mix of natural resources ranging from the coastal coniferous forests to the sand beaches and dunes of the Pacific coastal plain, including 120 miles of coastline that border the Pacific Ocean. Good habitats support an abundance of wildlife in the County, including deer, elk, bear, mountain lion, salmon, bald eagles and the northern spotted owl, and perhaps Sasquatch.

Published reports of Sasquatch sightings from Humboldt County are legendary. As a matter of fact our expedition took us very close to where the famous 16mm film made by Patterson and Gimlin was shot at Bluff Creek in 1967. This controversial evidence documents a surprise encounter with an obviously female, upright-walking, ape-like creature of great proportions. (find out more about this film by clicking here)

The Strategy

John's strategy for this and all expeditions that he organizes is to go into an area of known activity, stay there, and then to try and lure Sasquatch into a specific area of surveillance via sound broadcasts.

The strategy also includes surveys for any possible tracks, hair and other physical evidence that can be analyzed in the laboratory. During this expedition we added the strategic placement of sex pheromone- impregnated chips. The pheromone chips were developed and supplied by BFRO Curator Gregory Bambenek, MD, who produces the Dr. Juice line of deer and fish scents.

Dr. Bambenek is known worldwide for his research into pheromones and scents. His "Sasquatch pheromone" is a formulation that combines human and great ape sex pheromones. Though no one can know for sure what will attract Sasquatch, primate pheromones are known to have effects across species.

Dr. Bambenek's pheromone chips produced promising results, both during the expedition that yielded the Skookum Cast and during the 2001 Ouachita Project in Oklahoma.

Expedition Log

Thursday, 22 May

I drive from my home near Yosemite to meet John at his place near the north end of San Pablo Bay.

We load my gear into his big pickup, leave my car at his place, and start the long drive up to Humboldt County.

It's early evening by the time we hook up with Bobo at the little town of Orick.

We drive up to Johnson Road, the site of the May 2001 Night Scream encounter across the Klamath River from Johnsons. We set up and broadcast sounds until about 03:00.

Meanwhile Tom links up with Manny at 02:00 to get two-way radios and another loudspeaker. Manny, a member of previous Night Scream expeditions, isn't able to join us this time. Tom finds a place to get some sleep.

Friday, 23 May

We are awakened at sunrise by dusty logging trucks rumbling past our camp spot, the drivers choosing to use their Jake Brakes no more than 30-ft away from our sleep-deprived heads. Upon surveying the area in the light of day we find no bear sign whatsoever, which will become a determining factor in a later strategic change to our efforts.

At around noon, Tom links up with the team at the Johnson Rd. site.

John needs to make a short side trip to Crescent City and Bobo has to go into Eureka to collect a generator to be used for video lights later.

Meanwhile Tom and I do some reconnaissance of Cedar Camp Road, up 23 miles north from Hwy 96, to the head of the Bluff Creek drainage, about four miles east of the October 1967 Patterson film site. During the drive I interview Tom on videotape. The road is found to be rough but passable. Forest Service Rt. 12n13, leading west from Lonesome Ridge Road to Louse Camp south of Bluff Creek, is found to be blocked with snow. Worse, the recon confirms Manny's report from earlier in the week that the main paved road north from Orleans, 15no1, is blocked by snow at about 16 miles north of the highway.

The team reforms in Orick at a little cafe for food and a lot of planning. I videotape the planning session, using lights and the generator Bobo secured for us. The meeting runs long and we have to rush out the door for a phone interview of John live on the Jeff Rense radio show from the field.

Bobo gets on the phone and entertains Jeff's listeners with a true tale of a hair-raising Bigfoot experience during a previous expedition with John.

After the interview the team starts broadcasting simian and possible Sasquatch sounds at 21:00 from a clearing on Redwood Creek just east of Orick, near some old historical sighting locations.

The team then drives to a broadcast position that Tom and I found along Bald Hills Rd., just east of the Redwood Nat'l Park boundary, during our reconnaissance trip earlier. Jim links up with the team at the new Bald Hills site. We broadcast until about 03:00.
No results.

Saturday, 24 May

During the morning hours I take advantage of a lull in the activity to grab some beauty shots of the spectacular and rugged mountain country of northern Humboldt County and do an interview with Jim. I also videotape Tom explaining his methodology (extrapolated from military tactical analysis) for estimating Sasquatch dispersion, starting with a theoretical minimum number needed for a breeding population. His ideas will be presented in the documentary.

Later, when we survey the area, we find no Bear scat at this location either.

Disappointed by the lack of response in the Bald Hills/Johnsons area, the team decides to shift east to the Orleans area. Before we get situated in the new area Jim has to return to Crescent City due to a broken spring on his truck.

Saturday night's broadcast ops are from an overlook along 15no1 just SE of Bald Mt. I interview Bobo on camera while he sets out the pheromone chips.

Tom with his night-vision goggles

As night falls, Tom takes a hidden position to observe the road from both directions with night vision gear. Meanwhile, Bobo roves with the broadcast gear rigged to his truck, up and down the road from our campsite. I use the night shot camera to film Tom as our sentinel.

No response to broadcasts.

Right before we decide to end ops at about 03:30, we set up the lights and generator and try to shoot the team planning what to do next, but it starts raining and we decide to call it a night.

Sunday, 25 May

Bobo reports hearing a loud snap not long after we retired for the night.

John Bobo and I do a survey of our site. We find a seemingly fresh tree break near where one of the pheromone chips has gone missing.

Once again, no new bear scat is found in the area.

Meanwhile Tom recons access on Slate Creek Rd. to Wright Place, a large clearing on the east bank of Bluff Creek just below Fish Lake, the site of his JUL '96 fresh tree break finding and near where he found a huge scat pile in SEP '96.

Scat from unknown animal (L) compared to Bluff Creek Rd. bear scat (R)

John, Bobo and I meet up with Tom. He reports that the last mile down to Bluff Creek is gated; probably to contain the Fish Lake outbreak of Port Orford Cedar root disease. Tom confirms access to Twin Lakes on Slate Creek road. John thinks that it's still too early in the year for large omnivores to be at high elevations. So we'll follow the food, and that means going to a lower elevation to find a broadcast site, preferably in an area with fresh bear sign.

Bobo makes a run for gas.

Tom recons a site at about 1,000 feet elevation about a mile directly SE of Weitchpec where Bobo heard about an encounter in the past three weeks.

John and I do some of our own scouting and I grab some more video footage of the area. After initially missing our rendezvous with Tom and Bobo we meet on the side of the road near the Hoopa Valley Indian Reservation. Bobo has to return to Eureka to return the generator.

Tom reports a decent broadcast location and recent bear sign. He guides John and I to the site. There is bear sign everywhere. As John sets up camp, I videotape Tom as he sets out the pheromone chips. Later, Tom links up with Bobo in Weitchpec and guides him up to the location.

At about 21:00, after the broadcast equipment is set up and operational, we go to "light discipline", as Tom called it, which includes no use of infrared light. The thinking is that if Sasquatch is nocturnal it may be able to see in the IR range. This means no more use of the night shot camera, which depends on using it's own IR lights to "see" - except for audio recording - unless we get a clear shot of a Sasquatch.

Once again, Tom is on sentinel watch with night vision gear.

Setting up the broadcast equipment before "light discipline"

At 23:20, after about three hours of broadcast ops, the team hears a faint response, identical to what Bobo heard prior to other intense close encounters in the area. Over the next four hours we hear several more vocalizations. Judging from the direction of the moving sounds it appears that the creature is moving east below the ridge to perhaps then climb north to get uphill - and upwind - of the team. The team stays quiet, with Tom moving slowly to scan the three access roads and the perimeter with night vision gear. Later, while recovering a pheromone chip 50m west of the site, a vocalization makes both Tom and Bobo's hair stand on end.

After about 04:00 Monday, vocalizations cease, and we never see the creature that made the sounds. Nevertheless, I did manage to record one of the vocalizations on videotape.

Monday, 26 May

The team breaks up by about 10:00 and heads south to the Willow Creek Bigfoot Museum, and then home. With equal coatings of DEET, sun block, dirt and sweat, none of us smell good...

John, Randy, Tom, Bobo

Closing words by John Freitas

"This last expedition was not unlike the others in as much that the physical evidence that would support a Sasquatch is lacking. Although this project did record a vocalization, and that in itself is a great feat, it is still by no means a definitive proof that Sasquatch exists. But with each and every passing expedition, sighting and evidence that is found and or recorded, it is one day closer that this legendary mystery will be answered.

"Unlike other expeditions where a guide can be hired, or at the least, a trip to the library will answer your questions, this type of research has neither books nor experts that can guarantee a Sasquatch sighting. In essence, we the researchers are writing the book by trial and error, and while doing so, hope that we can prove the existence of this animal."

I'll add that our recording will be sent to a wildlife specialist for possible identification.

Thanks to Tom for his daily expedition notes and for the unknown scat and bear scat photos.

Thanks to Christy Marx for the use of her photos. All other photos are by John Freitas, or captured from our documentary.

The opinions and methodologies expressed in this report are those of the authors and are not necessarily held by others in the BFRO.