YEAR: 1976

SEASON: Winter

MONTH: November

STATE: California

COUNTY: Los Angeles County

LOCATION DETAILS: I was with others and was driven to the cabin. I don't know where it is really, but, I do know it was in the lake Hughes area and we turned off of Lake Hughes's road to get to his house or ranch. My buddy was the post Master of Alturas, Ca, and has retired from there now. I have not spoken to him in a long while. We got lost from each other in life's struggles. LOL. He would know of this place and all. My dad does not remember either. This was a long time ago, and I will never forget it. Ever!

NEAREST TOWN: Lake Hughes

NEAREST ROAD: Lake Hughes Road

OBSERVED: On a day after the snow had fallen, we went hunting up in the Lake Hughes area in California. There were 4 of us hunting that day; my dad, and myself and 2 good buddies. Well, the deer hunting was not that good that day so one of my buddies said to us, my wife's uncle is gone from his cabin and won't be back any time soon, so why don't we visit his land and all and just hang out and all and have some lunch.

Well, he lives by Lake Hughes's road and close to where we were. We went over there and unlocked the gate as he had a key. We went in there and we had brought some apples for our lunch and all. We seen he had hogs and started feeding them these apples. After about 1/2 hour of doing this, we heard the horses behind the house or cabin, running around and making all kinds of noise.

We could not see what was going on as; the house was in the way. But, man were they going nuts!!! So, we all said to each other, let's get over there and see what's up. We did and could not see anything but the horses still going nuts and running in circles. We then looked over this fence and threw a gate and seen these huge foot print's and smelled something like a dog that's been wet and rotten egg's mixed. Well, the gate was locked and he went inside the cabin or house and got a key for the gate.

We went over to the prints, and I'm 6-5 at that time, and weighed 275 lbs. I have a shoe size of 15 4-E. These tracks were much bigger than my shoe and they were made, with some of them in the snow. I stepped next to them and could not press down and going that deep! I could go maybe 3/4 - 1 inch down. These prints were 4 inches deep!! They were also, 2 to3 inches longer than my foot and much wider.

Then I tried to step that far with my step, and no way could I. Then we followed the tracks until they came to this really steep hill. There this thing went up this hill on 2 legs and stepped high enough that, even my good buddy who was a body builder and in great shape, could not climb. I could not even lift my leg that far, and I was 16 years old and pretty limber. No man could lift there leg that high or step that far! No man!!! Nowhere did we see bear tracks and even if we did, they don't walk that far on 2 legs. Whatever this was, it walked along this fence and turned and went back into the woods, and then up this very steep hill. It must have looked at the horses and maybe seen us feeding the hogs. I never seen it, but we got scared and left that ranch.

I have told this story to a few people, and they look at me like, it could be, but you can tell, they don't think this is real. But, when you see things like this, you just know something is out there. Nobody could change my mind on this one as, I know what I seen and it was not set up as, nobody knew we were going to his ranch, and the next ranch over, nobody was home there either. So, the only thing that could be is, this was real and not faked. Nowhere did we see any human foot prints by any of these tracks or up that steep hill. I know something is going on up there.

N. F.

ALSO NOTICED: None really , we just got out of there .

OTHER WITNESSES: 3

OTHER STORIES: I did read one time about a report in that area. I think it was in 1980's or something like this. A car was driving down a road in that area and seen a big hairy thing on or by the road, and it went down the side of the road. When I seen that report, I knew something was up there and I knew then, we all seen the tracks of this thing.

TIME AND CONDITIONS: About 1 pm. Could have been a bit later like 2-3 pm. Sun was out but cold and it had snowed sometime before we got there, maybe a few days before maybe more??

ENVIRONMENT: By a ranch house that had steep hills not far from it, with a semi wooded area around the ranch house, but there was this very highly wooded area close by.

Follow-up investigation report by BFRO Investigator Richard Hucklebridge:

Talked with Neil on the evening of May 6, 2010, who was very credible in the retelling of his story, and we went over his encounter which had numerous tracks around a horse pasture and then they headed up a very steeply graded hill that was located on one side of that pasture. The witness was extramurally excited to finally get a chance to tell his story after 34 years of holding it back. His father had advised him to keep this story to himself, because it would bring him nothing but trouble somewhere down the line.

This group of deer hunters who were finished hunting for the day, decided to go over to his friend's uncle's ranch in which there was a cabin on it, to eat lunch and rest. Snow had recently fallen and the ground was still a mixture of snow &mud. They viewed some hogs in their pen and they decided to feed them some apples they were going to eat for lunch. During lunch, they were hearing several of the uncle's horses going wild in the back part of the ranch property, which had to have lasted well about 30 minutes, while they were feeding the hogs. The horses continued on raising such a ruckus that they just had to stop what they were doing and go back to where the four horses were located to find out what was going on with them!

On their arrival at the horse pasture area they viewed some very large tracks through this metal gate; that were approximately 18 inches in length and from 5 1/2" to 6" wide as measured by Neil's size 15 boot. These tracks ran around the outside of the pasture where there were 4 horses going around and around in circles jumping and bucking, and making vocal sounds as in crying and screaming. The depths of these tracks were well over 4 inches deep, and they ran for well over 250 feet around this pasture, and continuing on up this very steep hill next to the horse pasture fence. One of the guys viewed air bubbles still coming up from the muddy part of the tracks which caused him to say, "Boy, these tracks are fresh".

This witness thinks that this creature had to have weighed well over 900lbs., because Neil stepped next to this track, to see just how much weight it would take to get a track 4" deep in that mud and snow. Neil said he could only get about 1" deep as he weighed in at about 275 lbs. Neil said that the tracks were for the most part, in a straight line, and there were about 40 plus inches between the tracks, toe to heal. He noted that the toes were thick. This creature had to have just left that area, because its stink was still very prevalent as it smelled something like a dirty wet dog that had rolled in rotten eggs, or even worse. At first, they all had a difficult time figuring out just what kind of a creature could have made these tracks.

What really impressed Neil, was how this creature transcended this steep 70% grade hill that was located up and behind the horse pasture fence. This creature put one foot up, which was about 2 1/2 to 3' up, and into this dirt hill, pushing its forward part of its foot into the side of this hill, with no other prints or tracks observed, it then proceeded on up this steep hill taking at least four other steps as it moved forward up this hill. He and several of his friends attempted to follow, but could not stay up right, as this creature had to have.

In Summary: I do believe that Neil and his friends had a large Sasquatch on that ranch property while he and his friends were out in front feeding apples to the hogs, because of the way the horses were acting, the fresh foul odors that were still emanating close to where the tracks were located around the horse pasture, and then the air bubbles still emanating from the muddy part of those large five toed tracks. Note, all measurements were only approximate as they didn't have any measuring devices. Neil still seemed skeptical that sasquatches were a real creature until several years later when he had the chance to view the film "The Legend of Boggy Creek" where they proclaimed that this story was taken from folks who believed it was a real creature.

About BFRO Investigator Richard Hucklebridge:

• Four years in the United States Navy, 1955-1959 (Combat Air Crewman on P4M Mercator Patrol Aircraft)
• 37 years in the aerospace industry: 33 years with General Electric at Edwards AFB; More than 5 years with the Northrop Grumman Corp. at Edwards AFB (Flight Line Mechanic on the B-2 Bomber).
• During 20 of those years at Edwards he was a Reserve Deputy Sheriff for the County of Los Angeles.

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