Final Report submitted by Jeff Lemley

Expedition Members:

5:00 PM I arrived at Patrick Creek Lodge on Highway 199, in Del Norte County, CA. No one else from the expedition had arrived yet, so I had time to chat with the bartender about the local history, as it was my first time in the area. He was quite well versed in the geological history of the Smith River area.

6:00 PM John, Lief, and Jim arrive. We exchanged introductions and began trading stories, as well as going over the plan for the evening. I shared a picture with the group that had recently come into my possession (it is posted in the bluenorth website).

6:30 PM Manny and Adolfo (O-fo for short) arrived. We finished up the briefing, and proceeded out to Little Jones Creek Road, approx. 4 miles northeast of Patrick Creek.

8:00 PM After sorting out some radio problems, we are finally on our way, broadcasting calls out of Joel’s truck (which John and Lief were in as Joel had not yet arrived). Jim (Geo) took the lead, followed by Manny and O-fo (Ford) in second, John and Lief (Chevy S-10) in third, and myself (Jeep Cherokee) in fourth. We were spread out at 2/10 mile intervals.

10:20 PM We have proceeded approx. 13 miles up Little Jones Creek Road, and have stopped the team to broadcast calls below an old USFS lookout tower. We have not had any activity up to this point. After broadcasting the calls, John hears something on the hill above him, and radios the team to remain blacked-out and converge on his position.

I proceeded forward using an infra-red monocular to see the road with, and stopped when I was within 100 feet of John’s position. Manny, O-fo, and Jim walked back from their vehicles to join us. We decided to spread out on foot at 50-foot intervals along the road to see if we could locate anything up on the hill. Manny went up the road towards my Jeep first, using his Sony Night Shot infra-red camera to see with. I followed about 30 seconds later, maintaining a 50-foot spread. Jim followed next.

Just after I passed my Jeep (about 100 feet back up the road), Manny froze in his position in front of me, and stood staring straight ahead. I stopped and signaled Jim to do the same. As I stood there, I started picking up on a rubbing noise, mixed in with some knocks and the sound of gravel crunching, like something moving around along the road. Manny turned and signaled me to move forward to his position. I creeped forward, while Jim remained back by the Jeep. I confirmed to Manny that I could also hear the noises, and we decided that they where coming from around the corner in the road, just out of view, about 150 feet ahead of us. We would hear a couple of shuffles on the gravel, and then either the knocking or rubbing sound. The knocking sounded like a branch or piece of wood striking a tree repeatedly (usually 4 times). We began moving forward very slowly, to see if we could get close enough to identify what was making the noise. As we drew closer, the others began turning on their spotlights and shining them up the hill above their position back by the vehicles. Manny radios back, telling them to turn off the lights, because we have something right in front of us. John radios back that there is something making some noise above them. At this time the noises in front of us increase in both intensity and frequency. Manny and I where deliberating on what to, and he called back to O-fo, who was with the others, and told him to come up and manage the spotlight. Then, we started to hear the subject in front of us start running down the road. We could not tell if it was towards or away from us. We flipped on our lights, and upon seeing nothing in front of us, began quickly, but cautiously, moving up the road towards the corner, checking up and down the hill as we went. Upon turning the corner, we spotted 2 deer (does) up the hill a ways, but saw nothing else.

We joined back up with the rest of the team, and returned to the vehicles. We were debriefing each other on what had happened. The others had heard some similar knocking on the hill above them, but could not identify the source.

As we were discussing possible options, we heard a load and very distinctive series of knocks (4) come from across the valley at about the same point as where I had started out when we first started broadcasting at this location ( 400 yards back down the road). There were some less discernible knocks that responded to these on the hill above us. They went back and forth for a while. We decided to set up camp at this spot, and broadcasted some more calls. We didn’t have any more activity after the final broadcasts.

9:00 AM Team proceeded back down to Patrick Creek Lodge for breakfast, and to meet up with Joel, and Bob and Autumn.

11:00 AM Joel arrives in John’s car. He swaps cars with John. John heads back into Crescent City to scan my photo onto his computer. Joel and Lief head up to John’s cabin to relax for awhile. The rest of us wait for Bob and Autumn.

12:30 PM Bob and Autumn arrive. We relax at the lodge for awhile before heading up to join the others. Jim decides to get a room at the lodge. He does not rejoin us until Sunday afternoon.

3:00 PM John rejoins us at his cabin. He is now driving his full-size Chevy pick-up.

5:00 PM We leave the cabin and head up Little Jones Creek Road to Camp 6, broadcasting calls at various intervals. No responses.

7:00 PM We find a spot to set up camp near Camp 6. Relax and eat dinner.

9:00 PM We form up and head out to a location where a land owner has reported a family of sasquatch living. It’s about 8 miles from our position. Joel opts to stay behind and mind the camp. He gives me his Sony Night Shot to use for the evening. Bob and Autumn have also brought their Night Shot camcorder. As we leave camp, John and Lief take the lead, followed by Bob, Autumn, and myself all in my Jeep, and Manny and O-fo took the rear.

9:45 PM We came across an area where several trees have been broken and are partially resting in the road. A couple of trees had been pulled out by the roots, and left in the road. We found where the trees had been pulled out several feet back from where they were laying, suggesting that they had been moved.

10:10 PM Found a tree that had been broken about 6 feet off of the ground. Manny obtained a hair sample from it, which will be sent in for analysis.

10:30 PM We reached the area where the family of sasquatch were supposed to be living. We turned around and began broadcasting calls on the way back out. John and I swapped positions so that he could be in the middle, and Manny remained in the rear. We kept 1/10 mile intervals.

10:45 PM About 5 or 6 seconds after John finishes a broadcast, both Bob and myself hear a possible response come back from quite some distance away. There was a question of whether it was genuine or just a really delayed echo, but it did sound slightly different than the recording. Anyway, it is too far away to justify further investigation.

12:30 PM Arrived at the park and met up with a gentleman , who then took us up a nearby trail along a river to a spot where he believes that he and his son saw a sasquatch, two weeks prior. We surveyed the area thoroughly, but did not find any evidence. As we hiked back out, we did find a spot on a tree where all of the bark and some of the inner wood had been clawed and or torn away. It was about ten feet off of the ground, and we could discern no claw marks from anything climbing the tree. Bob did spot a hair sample and collected it. Jim rejoined us upon our return to the parking lot.

3:30 PM Drove into Garberville and ate lunch.

5:00 PM Returned to the park. John interviewed someone who filled him in on some recent sightings in the area, and pointed them out on the map.

6:30 PM We went out to try a couple of calls in the area. No response. Jim left to go do some hunting on his own. He did not rejoin us.

8:00 PM Went to one of the other parks in the area where a park ranger was giving an interesting and enjoyable presentation on the Bigfoot Phenomenon. About 170 attended.

9:30 PM Stopped at a local diner for dinner and major amounts of coffee before heading back out.

3:00 AM Everyone was relaxed around the camp, sharing stories, singing songs, and winding down from the weekends activities. John and O-fo went to bed.

3:45 AM Autumn thinks she hears something off in the brush. We listen for a bit, and also hear something. Manny turns off his Coleman lantern, as its hissing is interfering with us hearing the noise. As soon as it stops, we can hear a definite scream/whistle coming from the northwest, about 200 - 300 yards away. It is a one-second long call that repeats itself every 10 - 12 seconds. It reminds some of us of the calls that a howler monkey makes. I wake up John. After a few minutes of listening to this sound (and getting some good audio recordings), John says "Well, let’s go meet ‘em." Him and Autumn head out in the direction of the calls, both with their camcorders (note that John does have a highly sensitive boom mike on his camcorder, and is picking up the calls quite clearly).

Whatever is making the calls stops when John and Autumn get about halfway to it. They return. We debrief John on what transpired prior to his awakening. We fire up the lantern again, and John places it on a bulldozer berm that is on the edge of camp, safely away from any foliage. We go to bed, leaving the lantern on.

4:47 AM I am the last one to crawl into my bag. I check my watch as I take it off, and am asleep within 15 minutes.

9:40 AM I wake up to my alarm going off on my watch. I slept like a rock. I look around camp and notice that no one else is up yet. I remember the lantern, and turn to look in its direction to see if it was still going. It was knocked over!! I crawled out of the Jeep and walked over to it, canvassing the area for prints. I noticed a large impression next to the lantern. It was about 5 inches wide and 15 inches long. Unfortunately, due to the nature of the soil, which was very hard and crumbly, there was no definition to the impression.

I decided to wake Manny and let him have a look at it. When I knocked on his window (he was sleeping in the cab of his truck), he jumped halfway to the other side of the cab. He then composed himself, and the first thing out of his mouth as he rolled down the window was, "Was that you screaming in the middle of camp last night?". I said no. He explained that someone had screamed, and it woke him up. He said John also heard it, because he saw him rise up in the truck (John was sleeping in the cab of his truck), and flash his lights as if trying to signal the others. I told Manny that the lantern had been knocked over, and that there was an impression next to it. I figured that he had probably been dreaming, as I do not remember waking up to a scream, and I am a light sleeper.

I took Manny over to the lantern and showed him the print. Due to the soil, it was inconclusive and useless. He picked up the lantern and walked back to his truck.

Bob and Autumn were now waking up, and the first thing out of Bob’s mouth was "Did somebody have a bee in their sleeping bag last night and start screaming?" Autumn also stated, "Yeah. Who was screaming? That was rude." At this point, I realized that Manny had not been dreaming. Bob also said that he had seen John get up and flash his truck lights, and that he could see Manny looking around from his truck. Everybody just seemed to go back to sleep though. Upon waking, John stated that he did not remember waking up to a scream or flashing his lights. As I said, I do not remember waking up, and no one remembers seeing me stir in my vehicle during the incident, although I have tinted windows, and may not have been visible anyway..

Bob stated that he thought it was someone with a bee or something in their sleeping bag because he had been woke up by something rustling around, which he assumed to be someone crawling into bed, and then heard the scream. Both Manny and Bob agreed that it was a four part scream that increased in pitch and volume as it progressed. They both imitated it the same, although Manny did obtain a higher pitch than Bob was capable of. It was like "AHH AHH AHHH AHHHHHH!!!!", with the last syllable being the highest pitched and loudest. Autumn, Bob, and Manny said that it sounded like a human in pain, but that it was extremely loud.

I shared with everyone my finding the lantern knocked over, and the impression next to it. We talked it over, and speculated that something might have come into camp, attempted to pick up the hot coleman lantern, burned itself, screamed in pain, and then ran off. We searched the entire area for prints, but found nothing.

12:00 PM We left camp, took Hwy 36 back to Hwy 101, and headed north towards Crescent City.

4:00 PM We stopped off at Willow Creek, along Hwy 101, and looked for prints in the sand. Several have been reported here recently. Found Nothing.

5:00 PM Parted company with John, Manny, and O-fo.

6:00 PM Autumn, Bob and myself stopped off at Walker Road, off of Hwy 199 in the Redwood National Forest, where a film crew had caught an alleged sasquatch on tape a couple years ago. We hiked into the old Walker homestead, and Autumn showed us where she had found some broken trees and hair samples on Mission Night Scream 1, on Memorial Day weekend this year. Found some fresh bear tracks and hair, which appeared to be from a bear.

6:30 PM Mission completed. Proceeded back to Oregon.

In summary, I don’t believe that anything conclusive occurred during MNS 2. I am very interested to see what comes back on Manny’s hair samples from Saturday night, and John’s audio recordings from early Monday morning. I will say that enough unexplainable events, some which I chose to omit here due to complete lack of physical evidence and scientific relevance, took place to fan the fire of my interest. I will definitely be involved with the next expedition, MNS 3, and I am intensifying my own efforts in South Central Washington. I would recommend that any serious sasquatch enthusiasts contact John about possible inclusion on his next foray. But it is not for the light hearted or weak minded. Anyone who thought the Blair Witch Project was scary (I didn’t think so), would probably have been hiding in a truck and crying as a result of some of our experiences. As I said, we did not obtain any scientific evidence, but everyone was very disturbed by the end of the mission. I have had trouble sleeping the last couple of nights, though I am completely exhausted from the trip.