YEAR: 2024

SEASON: Summer

MONTH: September

DATE: 1

STATE: California

COUNTY: Humboldt County

LOCATION DETAILS: It’s the Founders Grove about 250 yards past the Founders tree to the right.

[Investigator (MM) Notes

This is my best guest for rough GPS of area the witness describes in his report:

40.3511976, -123.9218223 ]
.

NEAREST TOWN: Redcrest

NEAREST ROAD: CA 254

OBSERVED: My wife and I were on a sunset walk through the Founders Grove in the Redwoods everything got really quiet and then something chattered. Stood quiet a second gave a simple “whoop” and something vocalized again. Spent a lot of time in the woods and I’ve never felt that just almost immediate dread. Whatever it was was huge. Always have found the stories entertaining, but my goodness there is nothing more terrifying than being in the woods just past sunset and hearing that. We HIGHTAILED it back the car.

ALSO NOTICED: The chattering that I mentioned seemed to disappear when we moved away. Same time something was moving through the brush, (sounded like it was going away, and deeper into the woods)We were hiking the loop, heard it, turned around making our way back to our vehicle. That’s when I gave the whoop back, and was met again with the same chatter.

OTHER WITNESSES: 2

TIME AND CONDITIONS: Just after sunset with darkness setting in.
Clear conditions.

ENVIRONMENT: Redwood forest

Follow-up investigation report by BFRO Investigator Matthew Moneymaker:

The South Fork of the Eel River in the California Redwoods region is another area with a history of encounters like the one that happened yesterday.

This occurred just after sundown. When bigfoot-related incidents occur on popular hiking trails they tend to be sound-only incidents, and they tend to occur at this time of time of day -- just after sundown.

It happens in locations that are likely important to them, for whatever reason. They will make intimidating sounds near hikers who are still on the trail after sundown, as if to indicate that humans should not be in there after sundown.

In a place like this, if I wanted to photo/video the bigfoots without them knowing I would not simply walk down the trail with a big camera. I would approach the target area from an angle the Bigfoots are not expecting. I would move very quietly and slowly so as not to make any brush breaking sounds.

Although leafy camouflage would not fool a bigfoot, it is pretty effective at fooling the birds and squirrels that would otherwise make warning calls if they notice you moving off trail nearby them. Experienced bird watchers often wear full woodland camo, so their presence does not affect the behavior of the birds they are trying to photograph. Thus, you won’t appear too strange to be walking through the parking lot in full camo like a turkey hunter and carrying a good camera on a monopod.

I recommend the Nikon P900 ($1000) or the latest version of that compact long-zoom camera, which also shoots video with sound.

See video about the Founders Grover Loop trail below the map images.

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]