DATE:    09-05-86

TIME:      Approximately 1:00 P.M.

LOCATION:  Pondarosa, California, Tulare County

TERRAIN:     Mountains

OBSERVED:    Strange feeling of being watched while fishing.

Also:  No animal sounds were heard that you would normally hear in the mountains.
While on leave prior to going overseas, I was staying with my older brother in Pondarosa, just enjoying the time off.  Since I was raised in that area, I knew where to go and fish without the possibility of running into other people.  While I was fishing the lower Peppermint Creek (I was about 3/4 miles from Hwy. 190) I was sitting on a big rock when I suddenly had the hair on the back of my neck stand up.  I stood up and looked around and started saying who's there?  I also noticed that the only thing that I heard was the river and nothing else.  The only thing that I had for my protection was a K-Bar fighting knife that I always carry when I go fishing.  Needless to say, I had my hand on it the entire time.  This feeling lasted about 5 minutes.  Then I had a strange feeling that I'd better reel in my line and leave the area.

ACTIVITIES OF WITNESS(ES):    Fishing

DESCRIPTION OF CREATURE:   N/A

OTHER NOTES:   A couple of years earlier while deer hunting above Camp Nelson (just 30 miles from Pondarosa), I had something following me in the treeline while I was walking down a dirt road just below the dump.  I also found what appeared to be a nest when I walked up a finger off of the dirt road.  This nest, to me, seemed that something big was sleeping there.  I also come to think about it, it was too big for a bear or mountain lion, which I see there all the time, then basically looked at this nest for a total of 2 minutes and got the hell out of there because it was getting dark and I didn't want to face whatever was following me, and I was carrying my Dad's 30-30 and my .22 rifle.
 
 

OTHER SIGHTINGS IN THIS AREA:  These occurrences took place in the same area where those men who were working on the foot bridge in the Golden Trout Wilderness in 1987.  This was before I came back from Japan.