YEAR: 2022

SEASON: Summer

MONTH: July

DATE: 18th,21,22

STATE: California

COUNTY: Shasta County

LOCATION DETAILS: 9 miles off highway 44 just in lassen park. Just passed the sign for lassen park going east

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[Investigator (MM) notes: Location of incident: Campsite #10 at North Battle Creek Campground in Lassen National Forest, north of the town Viola. Campground location: North Battle Creek Reservoir

GPS coordinates for camp site: 40.597811, -121.647638

NEAREST TOWN: Viola

NEAREST ROAD: Highway 44

OBSERVED: This happened mid July 2022. My name is John. I am a 66 year old man. My wife and I are finally retired and planned on going camping for a week at a time. We have been wanting to go up to north Battle Creek and fish for a lot of years. We have fished it in the past but we wanted to stay for more than a day at a time.

I have been a hunter my hole life. I hunted deer, bear, pig and have have filled my tags every year. So I know how animals react to different situations. And I can identify all species.

Due to health reasons we had to wait until early July to make our first trip. We made reservations to get the camping spot we wanted which was closest to the lake. It was hell waiting for the day to come.

The day we left was mid July. It was only a two hour trip from our home in Northern California to north Battle Creek. We left about ten in the morning. The road going in there was a dirt road about nine miles back in the woods. We didn’t see any wildlife on the trip in. Which I thought was strange. But when we drop into the valley where the lake was I told my wife and oldest son Shane that we were dropping in to Sasquatch valley.

This was on a Sunday and people were leaving. So there was only a few people still camping. We found our camp site and set up.
It was so beautiful there. It was in the 100s at home when we left and only 85 at the lake. Wow, what a relief. The day was so nice we stayed in camp that day and put our kayaks at the boat ramp .

We have a very good dinner that night and turned in right after dark. On Monday their was only one other group camping besides us. They were about 80 yards away.

I got up around 4:30am and sat around the camp until it was light enough to see. I got my gear and walked down to the lake put my things in my kayak and took off. The fishing was great. I got my limit. I was the only person on the lake. About 10:30 I headed back to camp with my catch. Everyone was up and I told my son to go clean my fish (family joke).

We sat around the rest of the day talking and enjoying the beautiful day. We saw some cows at the east side of the camp ground. But didn’t think anything of it. The day was very uneventful. We had dinner which wife is a great cook and went to bed. It was nice and cool at night in the 50s.

Tuesday morning comes I am up again at 4:30am. I was sitting at the table when I heard a very load yell or howl. I could not come up with what it could have been. Everyone else was still asleep so when It was light enough I walked down and took off fishing in my kayak.

As I was fishing I started hearing more yells or howls coming from the west side of the lake. Then I heard it from the north side of the lake. Then I heard a lot coming from the east side of the lake. I must have heard ten different yells or howls that morning fishing. I went back to camp after it all stopped with my limit of trout.

When I got back to camp my wife was up and I asked her if she heard the yells or howls and she said she did and said it was the black angus cows. But it didn’t sound like any cow I have ever heard. This was different.

So I sat down and told my son, when he got up, hey, clean those fish. Well first he is not a boy he is 49 and 6’1” 245 pounds of muscle no fat at all. He heard the sound also and didn’t think it was a cow. He is the oldest of nine boys. He had his dog with him her name is Penelope. She is a little dog about ten pounds.

Late at night the people at the other camp started to make a lot of noise yelling and fighting. They threw everything in their trucks and left very very early. My son said he couldn’t tell what was going on over there. But when I got up they were gone.

We talked about it all day because it didn’t sound right. The rest of that day was normal. Nothing else happened until it got dark and we went to bed. Then it became a epic night of biblical proportions. A night that will live in infamy in my sons mind.

We all went to bed that night and he got in his sleeping bag and was reading a book. Me and my wife fell to sleep quick. But not long after we fell asleep his dog started to shake and she was growling low. That’s when Shane heard something very big walk up to his tent fast and stop then walk half way around it. He yelled get out of here. What ever it was walked a way fast and very heavy.

He said it sounded like a very big man with over size boots on and very heavy and on two legs. He said when it walked up he had his reading light on and when it stopped at his tent he very slowly turned his light off. Before he yelled.

A few minutes later he heard his dog growling again and start to shake again. He heard the heavy footsteps and again it stopped at his tent then walked around it. He pumped himself up to confront who ever it was. When he was pumped up enough he jumped up and run out of his tent with his book light and his book in his hand to confront who ever it was. He turned his light on and shined his light about all of three feet but there was no one there but he could hear it walking away again.

He yelled for me but I didn’t hear him. Now he was getting very worried it could see him but he couldn’t see it. So he got back in his tent and zipped up the door this time. A few minutes later it started to come back again his dog was shaking again and growling. It came again to his tent and stopped. He sat there listening. It walked around his tent then walked off again.

The rest of the night he tried to listen to see if it would come back but finally fall asleep.

I woke up at 4:30 and went fishing again nothing looked any different. I didn’t know what had happened that night yet. So I went fishing and got my limit and came back to camp about 8:30. My wife was up so I had coffee with her. When my son got up a few minutes later he had a very weird look on his face. He started to walk around his like he was looking for something. I helped him look for tracks but only found some deer tracks about 30 feet away.

So I told him he has more fish to clean. Then he started to tell us about what had happened last night. I told him I didn’t hear anything. We talked about it all day and I told him it couldn’t be a deer they walk slow and quiet. It wouldn’t be a bear they walk slow and would have went to the kitchen for food and if you scared them they most likely not come back that quick.

I told him you must have had been a Bigfoot visit you. Dam and I missed it. He didn’t believe in Bigfoot before that night but now he is starting to. I have never seen him so scared as he was when he came out of that tent in the morning he must have been shitting twinkies all night.

After that night we didn’t see any more cows until Friday night when people started to come back in camping.

But the next night on Wednesday night I figured on scaring him a little so I put fishing line on the back of has tent then ran it to my trailer door hooked to a stick. That night I got up at 12:30 and started to pull the line but he was asleep all ready so I went back to bed. A few minutes later something walked between my trailer and his tent and I heard the stick hit the door . Then it must have stopped and backed up a bit because the stick hit the floor and made a noise.then it started to walk again and the stick hit the door again.and broke.The next morning I went to pick up the line and it was way over behind my trailer not even close to where I had I figure it was after the fish heads my son had put in the fire pit.

The rest of our trip was as normal as could be. But when I got home I started to look up Bigfoot sounds YouTube and I found that exact one. It was 16 sounds of Bigfoot in the Serras, the 7th sound.
So I went up to our corner store and was telling the lady that works there her name is Lisa what had happened. And she said the same thing had happened to her 5 years before in the same place. My neighbor had something happen to him up there too.

So I hope you can make sense of all this . You can use our names I am not afraid of what people think.
Thank you,

John and Shane

ALSO NOTICED: The camp site number 10 on Tuesday night about 11:00 started yelling and making lots of noise and packed up and left in the middle of the night

OTHER WITNESSES: 3 .sleeping

OTHER STORIES: Yes 2 more my neighbor and the lady at our corner store had the same thing happen

TIME AND CONDITIONS: 18th at 4:30am dark cool
21st dark about 10:30pm cool
22nd dark 12:30am cool

ENVIRONMENT: Forest next to reservoir in campground, site 10

Follow-up investigation report by BFRO Investigator Matthew Moneymaker:

This is North Battle Creek Reservoir, 200 miles north of San Francisco in Lassen National Forest. The reservoir and facilities are operated by the electrical power company PG&E. That's not unusual.

I will cut to the chase about the importance of this incident from last summer:

I spoke with the witness. He's credible and knowledgeable. It was likely legit bigfoot activity around that reservoir in July.

I looked up other information, including aerial images, that has led me to the conclusion that this is a very good place to recommend if you have a thermal camera and a boat, or you can hustle those two things together at the same time for a few days.

The reservoir is small enough such that a small boat in the rough center of it will have a good view of the entire shoreline, and close enough to the entire shoreline for a 384-line thermal camera (or better) to clearly discern a human figure (or larger) at the edge of the water, or outside of the treeline.

The boat should have a silent trolling motor so you can slowly drift closer to any heat blips on the shoreline that you want to check out.

A hot summer night when there is no moonlight (to make you very visible) would be optimal for a boat watch at his reservoir because of its location.

It is not in the wet coastal mountains of northern California. There are not small streams and ferns in every direction like near the coast.

It is a much drier inland forest, on the east side of the baking Central Valley (San Joaquin). It stays hot and dry for weeks at the height of summer. Even though the reservoir elevation is 5,576 feet, the forest will be crispy dry in July.

One or more sasquatches residing in that general area would want to come to that water every night during those hottest weeks, because there are no other options for many miles in any direction. It is an important watering hole in the summer that will naturally attract many different species. That in itself would make it a magnet for a sasquatch group.

It is very isolated and very far out in the boonies with respect to human development.

I am hoping that one or more people with boats and handheld thermal imagers will heed my recommendation to stake out this reservoir in the right conditions.

About BFRO Investigator Matthew Moneymaker:

Matthew Moneymaker is originally from the Los Feliz District of Los Angeles, California.

- Bachelor of Arts in English Literature from the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA).

- Juris Doctorate (Law degree) from University of Akron School of Law

- Founder of the Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization,1995.

- Writer and co-producer of the Discovery Channel documentary "Sasquatch: Legend Meets Science", 2001.

- Co-producer of the TV Series "Mysterious Encounters" for the Outdoor Life Network (OLN Channel), 2002.

- Producer of the "2003 International Bigfoot Symposium" (Willow Creek Symposium) DVD set, 2004.

- Co-host of "Finding Bigfoot" on Animal Planet Channel, 2010 - 2017.

- Current Director of the BFRO

- Available for private bigfoot expeditions and conferences. To inquire please email [email protected]