HOW I MET DAVID RAYGOZA

Someone told me we had a Bigfoot investigator here in Fresno and that was the time I wanted to expand our investigations among the Sanger Paranormal Society from Ghost and UFOs to Cryptozoology. I am in no way an expert in any one field so that’s why I like to surround myself with people or organizations that can teach me about that certain paranormal subject. I called David Raygoza in early 2009 and introduced myself. I told him about our society and how I wanted to expand in the search for Sasquatch. I have heard stories about these creatures living up in the Sierras just East of Fresno but had no idea where to go or who to ask. David invited me to his home where he talked about his interest and how he started looking for the creature and why. David has been looking for the creatures ever since he saw a footprint over 18 years ago while camping in the mountains not to far from Fresno. He finally found a Elderly Native American who spoke of a location where his ancestors say there are a family of these creatures living in a remote area of the Sierra National Forest. David was able to locate that area 8 1/2 years ago and has been on an incredible journey only certain people have ever had the opportunity to be on. His reputation as a Bigfoot investigator started to get out by word of mouth and then started to receive calls from people who had sightings. After talking for a while, he told me that he was planning a Bigfoot Expedition on Memorial Day of 2009. That's where it all started for me. You can look at that trip and the outcome here on my web site. Ever since then, I have been going with David as many times that I could fit into my schedule because I am married, have 2 kids and work for AT&T, where I work a lot of hours.

BIGFOOT EXPEDITION 2011

David organized another expedition for Memorial day 2011 and put the word out on his Face Book wall. Obviously, I was already inked as well as Joseph Walls, another Bigfoot investigator. David received 3 confirmations from people who he had never met. More people confirmed but had to cancel. It was Friday, May 27, and we were on our way. Joseph called before and advised David he would meet us up there because he is coming from another town. Joseph has been investigating just like David because Joseph had a sighting while hunting up near Huntington Lake. You can see his story on a Episode of Monster Quest called "the Sierra Sasquatch". I drove my Ford F-150 extra cab pickup and I had Allen Thomas in the passenger seat. My pickup was packed heavily with camping equipment and 4 ice chests full of food and drinks. David has a Jeep Cherokee and was taking Danny Valderrama and his son Drezden who is 14 years old. His Jeep also had camping equipment and a ice chest full of food. We all got to the site which is about a 2 1/2 hour drive to the middle of no where. We take roads until they end then dirt roads take us to a remote section of the forest. These roads are never kept up by the Dept. of Forestry so we are always running into problems when ever we drive up there. That day the dirt roads were really bad. David and Joseph had problems driving in because of the recent rain and snow storms and they have 4 x 4 in their vehicles. Now it was my turn. I don't have four wheel drive and I got stuck several times where I had to rock the truck to get out. I almost didn't make it. I finally made it to the spot. We off loaded set up camp, built a fire and cooked dinner. We sat around the fire and decided to turn in around 12:00 am. The next morning we woke up and we went hiking all day leaving Allen back at the site because he walks with a cane and there was no way he would be able to go hiking because of the steep terrain. Night fall came, had dinner, we did some yelping, heard something way far in the distance but it could have been a coyote. We turned in around 12:30 am and at 1:30 am it started to rain and the tent started to leak so we went outside to cover everything up with tarps, including our tent. At around 2:00 am. Joseph said maybe we need to pack up and get out of here while we can because the rain was only going to make the roads worst then they are. David said what if one of the vehicles gets stuck in the dark then we would all be screwed. So we decided to wait for sun up. It was 6:00 am and David was the first one up so he decided to go outside to see the damage. A couple of minutes later he came back and told us its snowing, we better pack up and get out of here before the roads are impassable. We started to break down everything not being very organized about it because in the back of our minds we were thinking, are we going to make it out because of the roads? David went to start his Jeep and it didn't even crank over. I broke out the jumper cables and gave David's Jeep a jump but the battery was dead and not holding the charge where it wasn't allowing the Jeep to stay running. There was something major going on then just the battery. At a point David finally said , "I am going to have to leave my Jeep here". Then that's where he turned to me and said, "Jeff, I don't think your going to be able to make it out either" I told him, "watch me". I started to proceed to exit just at the camp site and my tires were spinning all over the place. I didn't even make it out 15 feet. That's when it finally hit me and I also would have to leave my truck behind. We had one truck left and that was Joseph’s Toyota four wheel drive. We all grabbed our personal and most expensive stuff and got into Joseph's truck. I left all of the camping equipment and 4 ice chests with still plenty of food that we did not eat in the back of my truck. We still had 9 pieces of fried chicken, 2 opened packs of hotdogs, 2 opened packs of sandwich meat, 3 loaves of bread with opened bags of potatoes chips and opened bags of pastries and cookies that were not in the ice chests but laying in a tub with paper plates and other utensils. David also had a lot of stuff in his jeep which included another ice chest with a left over prime rib. We proceeded to get into his truck, three in the front and three in the back. He had an extra cab but his truck was a little smaller than mine so we were pretty much packed in like sardines. We started to drive out and we all noticed how bad the only dirt road out of here was. Joseph had it in four wheel drive and we started to go. His tires were spinning going through massive water puddles and mud that went up pass the bottom of the doors. There was one spot almost at the end where we all had to get out to gather pieces of wood or anything that we could set in the mud for traction for Joseph's tires to grab. We finally made it out after a long struggle with Mother Nature. We all realized we made it but David and I knew we still had to come back and get our vehicles, but we didn't know when because the dirt roads would have to dry out before anything could get back there. On our way down the mountain, I realized I left my computer in the back seat of my truck under blankets and pillows. That's why I forgot it because it was not in the open for me to remember I had brought it up. Now I am really stressing because my life is in that computer but nothing I could do now. We all arrived home Sunday afternoon after a wild ride. Monday was Memorial day and I was off of work and I was stressing big time because of my computer. I called Allen Thomas, the guy who I took up that past weekend and I told him I left my computer in my truck and I needed to go get it. He heard the anxiety in my voice and offered to take me but I told him if he had anyone who could walk down the hill with me because we both knew Allen could not make the 45 min. trek because of his disability. I wanted someone with me for safety reasons. He said he would ask his brother Jimmy and a while later I get a call where Jimmy said he could. They both came for me on Tuesday morning in Allen's van and we were off. I told Allen if he remembered how to get up there even if its been only his first time and he said, "Hell no"! Again, it took me like 5 times going up there with David before I could get up there by myself.

We arrived at the top of the hill and that's as far as Allen's van can go. Jimmy and I started to walk with Jimmy holding my 12 gauge shot gun for protection and I was holding my video camera because while your up there, anything can happen. As we are walking, we are looking for any type of tracks on the dirt road ahead of us. We were finally about 150 yards from the site when we come up to this old dry tree which someone or something has placed across the dirt road. I told Jimmy this was not here on Sunday when we left the site. I found it really odd that there is no way someone would be down here because the dirt roads are not drivable and we did not see any type of new vehicle tracks or footprints. Not more than 30 feet away is another type of road block that consist of 2 tree limbs where we could see where someone or something moved them from the side of the dirt road. I told Jimmy, weird. Another 50 yards around the corner we come up to another road block and this one is just a straight tree limb that was place in line with another old tree that already laying off to the side. What's weird are these 3 road blocks were nothing special, anyone could remove them with no problems. Then we come up to the final road block. We could see where this one used to be because we could see the impression in the dirt. there is now a 14 foot log with a radius of 14 inches sitting in the middle of the dirt road. Not across but in the middle. We looked for any type of tracks like tire tracks or foot prints or horse tracks, nothing. My first guest was I thought maybe a forest ranger found our trucks abandoned with all of our equipment in the back of the truck and decided to place what we believe are the road blocks for a deterrent but we figured the last log weighs around 1,000 lbs so how could 1 person move it let alone 2 people. I got on my knees and tried pushing it but no way, it wasn't going any where. We looked for signs of dirt movement but nothing. The tree log still had small tree branches on it so rolling it would be difficult because the branches would stop it from rolling. That's where I said, was it picked up and place there? I started to get a little nervous so we decided to keep going arriving at the site about 5 min. later. Everything was just like we left it Sunday morning. Nothing was messed with, I looked at all the vehicles for any type of prints or marks on the vehicles. Everything was clean. Jimmy called me over about 40 feet away and showed me this foot print where I could see the details of toes but that was the only thing that I found different at the site. I retrieved my lap top, made sure the doors were locked and we proceed up the hill. This time it took a little longer because now we are going up hill. We arrive back where Allen was and showed him video of the road blocks and the foot print where you can see he got excited on what we found. We arrived back home around 2:00 PM. I called David and I told him what we found on the way into the site and he was surprised. He told me that he wanted to go the next morning to try to get his Jeep . He said he was going to buy 2 new batteries in hoping he could use those to get back down the hill. I told him lets go because I need my truck too. We arrived back up the hill the next morning again with Allen and Jimmy picking me up once again. We all met up the hill. We decided just to take one truck down there because again, the roads were still messed up. Everyone jumped in Joseph's truck and I rode in the back. We arrived at the road blocks removing them one by one until we got to the 1000 lb. log. Every one was amazed and dumbfounded on how the log got there. It took four grown men to push the log to the side of the dirt road so we could pass. Everyone decided to walk the rest of the way in but I decided to ride in with Joseph driving. We came to the site, again when I got out of the truck, I started to look all over for any type of footprints or weird activity. As I was looking towards the ground I proceeded to walk towards my truck lifting my head now looking at my drivers side of the truck where I stopped cold in my tracks. My attention was now focused on the windows at about 20 feet away. My eyes started to focus and that's when it hit me on what I was looking at. It felt like someone punched me in the stomach. I had to catch my breath as I walked towards the truck. As I was looking I started to see someone looking back at me on the drivers passenger side window. I looked at the drivers side window and I saw what I thought looked like someone or something pressed its face against the window and on the drivers passenger side window, it looked like something pressed its face and upper torso against the glass leaving an impression of its face and chest with one shoulder. At that point, I called over Jimmy. As he arrived where I was at I asked him, "Was this here yesterday"? He looked at what I was pointing at and with amazement he said, "No"! The rest of the guys came over and everyone was blown away. I started to take video with my I-phone then started to take video with my JVC video camera. Allen also started to take pictures. We were talking to see if we could figure out what would make these impressions. First thing we said was bear. We tried to figure how the bear when pressed against the windows, how would these impressions develop. We all know what a bear looks like and the impressions did not match a bears face or facial features. Then Jimmy said, "Wait, your telling me you have all kinds of food in those ice chests with other types of pastries and cookies just thrown into the back bed of the truck and nothing has been disturbed?" I said , "Yup!" Then he said, "Then that's not a bear." He said, "A bear would have torn apart your truck. There would have been stuff scattered everywhere with all kinds of damage to your truck" Nothing was touched except for the impressions on the windows. While we were staring at the windows, David got his Jeep started and said, "Lets go before my Jeeps dies again" We proceeded out the way we came in. Dirt road still had big puddles of water so I was trying to think how could I protect the windows but unfortunately, there was no way I could. I drove my truck out spinning my tires but finally making it out and throwing mud everywhere. I popped a tire so I had to change it on top of the hill. Once that was fixed we left. On the way down I was thinking to myself about what I actually had on my windows. So when I finally got cell phone reception at around Squaw Valley, I called my friend Mickey Burrow who is a forensic expert and is certified in retrieving evidence at crime scenes. I got a hold of him and I told him what I had on my windows and I asked him if he could come over and take pictures and swab for DNA. He told me that he gets off work at 6:00 PM, I will call you when I am on my way. Later that night he texted me and said that he just go dispatched on a stabbing in Fresno and he could not make it tonight. I said what about tomorrow after work and he said yes. The following day he came to my work after he got off of work and swabbed for DNA, using my swabs that I purchased incase this day ever came a reality. He also took pictures and after he finished with everything, he gave me the swabs which he placed in the test tube containers it came with and sealed them. He told me he will email me the pictures the following day and he did. The following day a friend of mine heard what had happened. He saw the pictures and video I took of the windows and he asked me, "Where are the windows right now? " I said ,"On my truck still. " He said, "Are you freaking crazy"!

"You need to take those windows off and preserve them right now"! So Friday morning, June 3, the windows were removed and right now they are at a location where it is climate controlled. Because of the totality of the circumstances, we believe what we have on the windows are not impressions of bear but of a Sasquatch.

We are now looking for a DNA Lab with a data base that consist of Bear, Mountain Lion, Monkey, Baboon and Gorilla who will offer their services for free. We are not asking for money but if someone wants to pay for the DNA mapping, we are asking that person or firm to pay the DNA lab straight without any of the monies going through our hands. Also, we do not want another Bigfoot organization involved in anyway.