A couple is RVing in Plumas National Forest. They experience various incidents over two days, culminating in getting stuck in the mud and being helped out by a pair of Sasquatch!
"Last year, my husband Mike and I were boondocking in Plumas National Forest near the ghost town of Seneca, California. Our jobs give us the freedom to travel freely so we have crisscrossed the country camping mostly for free in various National Forests. Overall it has been a positive experience, this encounter being the exception. We try to stay in the National Forests as much as possible researching our next site for days sometimes making sure that it fits our needs. We love being able to wake up and see the scenery from our bedroom and the solitude.
When we reached the site it became clear that some changes had been made. The photos online showed a small clearing and the forest was more open beyond the site on the satellite view. But the trees were dense around the site. We double-checked our coordinates because it appeared the clearing was far larger than indicated with a very small road going in further. There is a fresh fire pit as well, something that wasn't in the photos and that shouldn't be there. The fire risk was high at that time. Even though it wasn't quite like we had envisioned we decided to stay. The extra openness would let us make better use of our solar panels but it didn't help our cell service. We had about a week's worth of water and fuel on board but we decided that five days would be our maximum. This would be long enough to justify fully setting up the RV and unpacking. We parked and leveled the RV and I got to work setting up the inside of our forest home.
I was finishing up when I heard a loud knock on the door. The sound startled me. We were alone when we pulled in and we didn't encounter any other drivers on the road, so there shouldn't have been any knocks on our door. I peered out the rear window of the RV and saw an older woman riding a horse with an angry look on her face waiting for me to answer. I hadn't seen any horse camps listed for the site but I thought that maybe she was from further in on the dirt road. Even so, there was enough room for a truck and trailer to get past us. I couldn't imagine why this angry rider was knocking on my door.
I opened the door and the woman skipped all the niceties and went straight to lecturing me about the fire pit. I assured her that we had seen the fire warnings and that we weren't the ones who built it. She started telling me that we were on her property and we don't belong here. I showed her the printout and explained that we were well within our rights to be there. She refused to listen and it was obvious she was trying to run us off the site. After I made it clear that we weren't going anywhere she raised her voice and started lecturing me about trespassers and people disrespecting the land. After a minute or two, she threatened to call the Rangers to remove us. I welcomed the idea and asked her to call since my phone barely had coverage. This seemed to upset her even more but instead of launching into another tirade she turned her horse around muttering under her breath and entered the forest on a small game trail on the side of the site.
As I watched her disappearance from the forest Mike came around from the other side of the RV laughing. He said he bet she wouldn't call the Ranger. We've been living the RV life long enough that we have become pros at handling people who try to chase us off. A few disrespectful RVers give the rest of us a bad name, leaving their garbage behind, violating parking, and being loud late at night.
By the time we were fed and cleaned up for the night, it was close to nine o'clock. The Ranger never showed up proving her threat was as hollow as Mike had thought. We fell fast asleep like we usually do but it didn't last long, near 10 pm, we were jolted awake by the loud roar of engines. I looked out the window while Mike got his bearings and was greeted at the site of several headlights pulling into the camp hauling ATVs and motorbikes in the beds of their trucks. I thought that this was maybe the angry horse woman's revenge but that idea was quickly wiped from my mind when I saw a man chug a beer and throw the can into the firepit.
Mike and I put our sandals on and stepped outside hoping that this rowdy group would realize they weren't alone here. But they didn't even acknowledge us. We stood there watching them drink beers and throw the cans on the ground, yelling and laughing loudly. One truck turned its radio up and the girls started dancing in the headlights. We stood there watching the scene of madness before heading back inside with the hope that after they get unloaded for the night that they would calm down.
Midnight rolled around and they were still partying out there. The walls of the RV didn't muffle any sounds The laughing, chattering, and crude jokes were perfectly clear in contrast to the quiet forest. We could hear the crackling of a roaring fire in the fire pit and Mike was concerned that this drunken group wasn't watching it. They weren't supposed to have any fires, especially not one that kept whooshing every time they threw something into it eliciting cheers from the group. We were two people dealing with at least a dozen people, mostly young men, so he didn't dare to confront them. Our phones barely had any service outside the RV and inside we had none, so calling the Ranger was out of the question.
By 2 am it was mostly quiet and we were nearly back to sleep ourselves when we heard the sound of something hitting the side of our RV. We both snapped back awake thinking we heard giggling. Something hit the RV again and this time we were certain that there was giggling. Mike jumped out of bed and stormed out of the door of the RV yelling at the perpetrators to knock it off. I stood at the doorway of the RV but there is nobody outside. The fire pit was abandoned with flames still reaching up off the logs. They didn't even douse the fire after they were done using it and now they dared to start throwing things at our RV. Upset didn't do justice to what Mike felt at that moment.
He came back inside but before he could get back to the bed something hit the RV. The giggling was louder this time and we could hear the footsteps behind the RV. Mike finally had enough he grabbed his headlamp and went outside to get the RV ready to go. He didn't want to be here a second longer than necessary. I tossed things onto the bed and in the sink, then got into the passenger seat. Mike stormed over to their side of the camp and grabbed two of their five-gallon water tanks and pour them onto the fire. He then grabbed two more for good measure and flooded the fire pit. Nobody protested him. Nobody even came out of the forest or looked out of their tents as he poured all but two of their water tanks on the fire. He left the empty tanks next to the fire, hopped into the driver's seat, and drove off.
We had seen another dirt road on our way to the site. We didn't know if it was a campsite but we didn't have the energy to get into an area where we had internet service to see if we could camp there. If a Ranger stopped by we would explain what happened at the last site. When we reached it it looked less used than our previous site. We pulled in. We drove in slowly for about 15 minutes and the tires started to lose their grip in a muddy spot. Mike backed the RV up and then moved onto the side with the firmer ground. It was a close call but the roads started gaining a little elevation and it was firm the rest of the way.
At about five minutes up the road, we found a spot that in the light from the headlights appeared to be about as big as the last site. Mike parked the RV and grabbed his flashlight as we took a walk around the site. There was no fire pit and tiny plants were pushing up through the dirt. The ground wasn't well-worn here. There was a teepee-like structure at the far edge of the clearing but it looked like it was falling apart. There was a faint funky odor in the air but we dismissed it, thinking it was probably stagnant water down the hill. We returned to the RV and went to sleep as fast as we could, tossing stuff off our bed.
We slept in the next morning catching up on lost sleep. When we finally crawled out of bed the sun was pretty high in the sky. We went through the routine of setting up the RV again, putting things back where they belong, and having a quick breakfast before exploring our surroundings. We went to inspect the teepee structure and in the daylight, it was clear that it wasn't falling apart. It was well-built but made to blend in with branches twisted and weaving between the logs. It looked like a hunting blind, especially because there was a bone pile about a yard away. Mike picked through it and declared it was mostly deer, but he didn't understand why they would process it out here rather than load it up in a truck.
As I was walking near the bone pile I noticed some tracks that clearly had toes, some large and some small, that had to have been made when the ground was muddy. They were crisp now that the ground had dried but because nobody would be walking barefoot out here in the rain I assumed they were bear tracks. I called Mike over and he agreed. We would keep an eye out because some of the tracks were large. We spent the rest of the day relaxing by the RV and enjoying the bird's chatter in the trees around us.
When nighttime came around we retreated to the inside of our RV. Our cell coverage was just as terrible at this site, so we did what work we could saving the uploading for when we were done camping at this spot. After dinner, we cleaned up and relaxed in bed reading our Kindles.
At around 9pm, we heard a painfully familiar commotion. Mike ran out the door and then stuck his head back in, his face confirming that it was indeed the same group. Mike came back inside and just listened and was shocked as they parked, drinking, laughing, and yelling like before. As we were sitting on our bed discussing our options we saw a bright light come in through our window. We looked out the window and saw they had lit the teepee on fire. The structure wasn't in the trees but this bonfire was too close for comfort. The girls were dancing around the bonfire gyrating to a hip-hop song blaring out of someone's truck. I looked at Mike horrified they had to have poured fuel to get the bonfire to light that quickly.
We decided to leave and call the authorities as soon as we were able to. We hurried up and got the RV ready to hit the road. I started the engine and waited for Mike to do a final safety check. Once he was finished he hopped into the driver's seat and we were off. As we reached the first slick spot at the bottom of the hill the tires started sliding. Mike tried backing up but the tires just turned. I jumped out of the RV to see if there were any firm spots but I found that the ground was a mud pit the trucks must have torn up the ground on their way in. I tried gathering twigs and pine needles to help him get traction. I tried using the chalk blocks to give the wheel something to push against but it didn't work. We were stuck. Mike was tired and understandably angry so it took some time to convince him that we should probably ask the party people to help us out of this predicament in the morning. We could hear them partying from the bottom of the hill but it wasn't so bad that we were unable to sleep. Mike and I crawled into bed to wait for morning to come and we managed to fall asleep
It was midnight when the sound of people woke us up. We could hear guys yelling and girls screaming from the campsite. I opened the little rear window of the RV and I could see that the top of the hill was bright and headlights started coming down the road. Mike ran out the door to wave down the trucks as they flew down the road barely squeezing by us. None of them stopped and we didn't know what had scared them out of the campsite. I told Mike that they must have started a forest fire and they were trying to avoid getting caught. A look of fear crossed his eyes. Our RV was stuck and if a fire came down the hill our chances of survival were slim.
We went outside and started grabbing any loose debris we could to try and get some traction. Pine needles, pine cones, and small branches went into the mud pit. Mike returned to the driver's seat and put it in reverse while I stuffed more branches into the wheel tracks. Mike lightly stepped on the gas giving the RV a chance to grip. When it barely moved Mike had me go to the rear axle of the RV and jump while he rocked it between forward and reverse. I bounced for about 10 seconds then stopped and then started bouncing again. After several rounds of bouncing, I stopped but the RV didn't stop. Mike called back to me and asked how I was getting the RV to move so much. I let him know that I wasn't moving.
Suddenly the gentle movements turned violent, shaking hard enough that we could hear things crashing against each other in the cabinets. I looked out the front window and it appeared that the RV was moving forward. Mike's knuckles were white gripping the steering wheel. He asked if I thought it was an earthquake but I couldn't see the trees moving out the windshield. I turned around and looked out the back window of the RV and I saw what appeared to be brown hair. I opened the rear driver's side window curtain and there was a massive hairy creature with a smaller one standing along the road. They were both standing on two legs. My view was broken when the RV jolted forward and I fell back onto the bed. I could hear Mike stuttering to talk from the driver's seat of the RV and a grunting sound from the back. On a forward rock, he gently stepped on the gas and the RV slowly moved forward. when the wheels seemed to gain traction he stepped harder on the gas and the RV lurched forward, pulling out of the mud. As soon as the tires held firm he accelerated down the road putting space between us and the hairy creatures.
I crawled my way up to the passenger seat bouncing into the air a couple of times as Mike flew down the dirt road. Once I was buckled in I tried talking to Mike but he didn't utter a word until we reached the main road. When he did start talking he only wanted to talk about getting a hold of the authorities. I wanted to confirm with him what I saw but he just shook his head. He kept speeding down the road, hands, and jaw clenched. I knew he saw them but he wasn't ready to talk about it. The only thing he would say about the matter was that he knew those people weren't running from a fire.
When we reached the point of the road where we could pull off, he parked the RV for the night. Our phone said no service. We didn't know where the Ranger Station was and it was late. Mike thought that by parking along the road it would attract the attention of any law enforcement driving by. If not we would drive until we found cell service and call them in the morning. We crawled into bed and Mike fell asleep first. His sweaty twitchy body gave evidence of a nightmare next to me in the cold RV.
I've never been so happy to hear the raucous noises of Stellar's Jays outside. Their harsh call let me know that the sun was rising. I made my way to the bathroom and was about to get settled in when I heard a loud knock at the door. I could hear Mike's feet patting across the floor to the door and I was right behind him. He opened the door and we were greeted by a Ranger asking why we had parked along the road. Mike explained the events of the last two nights omitting the event of the mud pit and our encounter with the angry horsewoman. The Ranger confirmed that the woman had called to report us so he had been up to both sites that morning to do a check. The first sight had trash and the used fire pit but the second scene he described at the other campsite confirmed that something had scared the rowdy group out. The ranger had seen the charred remains of the bonfire but there were also ripped tents, overturned water coolers, sleeping bags, and other camping gear strewn around the campsite. He said it looked like bears had ransacked the site.
After assuring him the gear wasn't ours he warned us not to camp on the shoulder before getting back into his truck to head back up the hill. We hustled through our morning routine making ourselves presentable with the hope of finding a cafe in town along Highway 70. When we went outside to do our safety checks. We reach the back of the RV and Mike's hands touched two indents spread far apart in the back of the RV that wasn't there before. He shuddered before heading to the driver's seat to test the tail lights. After everything was clear I started towards the front of the RV but paused as a small SUV came to a stop next to me. The driver was the angry horsewoman and she had tears in her eyes. She rolled down her window and said, 'What did you do to my baby's home?' She then drove away."
NOTE: This is one of the wildest accounts that I have ever read! Lon
Transcribed Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jsblfpiNByk
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