UFO, Orb, UAP, or whatever... you decide (image simulation)

This is the story.

Back in the early 80's, while in my teenage years, a friend of mine and I took a one-day deer hunting trip in Butte County, CA, up in Zone D3, in-between Berry Creek and Feather Falls. The area we began our day at was a logging camp that had just ended for the season, or at least as I recall; there were no loggers nearby, all the equipment had already been moved off-site.

My friend had packed up his gear and set out to the north of our vehicle and I set out to the South-West, down a hill and into a tree line next to a clear-cut (open field). After spending some time in a blind area and seeing no activity, I packed up and began to head back through the clear-cut; it was the shortest direction to our vehicle - a B-line in the opening.

Beyond the clear-cut, north-west of me, at a distance was a tree line, and there something had caught my eye as I cleared past some trees north of me; a small silvery globe floating westwardly just over the tree line. My only thought (what I can still recall) was that this was an odd place to see a mylar balloon. However, from the size and surface shape, it did not appear deflated but still perfectly round and solid. I continued to watch it float slowly over the tree line until it had gone out of sight.

To be perfectly honest, I could not tell the size or distance of the balloon from my vantage point, but it seemed relatively close as it appeared to be just over the tree line about 200 yards or so off in the distance and the balloon just beyond the tree line not farther off. My best guess is (was), that it was about 6' to 10' in diameter. But again, that is just a guestimate.

I do recall that at the time I didn't think much of this sighting; my reaction was, it was just a balloon... out of the ordinary for the area, but not out of ordinary for what I thought it was. To this day, I am certain that it was just that; a not-so ordinary mylar balloon. I was not shocked by it other than thinking it was curious and out of place, but not mysterious and outer worldly... to me, it was just a silver balloon.

The image: the image I used here is just a stock image that closely matched the area and clearing I was in on that day. The silver ball in this image is slightly larger than the actual ball, but not by much; I'd say, the actual silver object I saw was roughly half the size of this image here. The ball in this image would have been drifting from right to left; in a West-South-West direction.

Anyway, that's my story.

Also, I did have two other sightings in my later life, around 2012 but might have been later; I documented it, but I am going by memory, and it is a bit faded. This second sighting was of a Chinese Diplomatic jet that flew overhead very low and heading West here over the San Gabriel Valley one day, just south of Mt. Wilsom, from over the mountain a small black diamond shaped craft came in very quickly at about a 90-degree angle to the jet then straddled right up alongside of its just beyond its wing. It followed only for a few moments then shot off at an incredible speed back over and up North over Mt. Wilson. This was a daylight sighting. My best guess was, it was a top-secret drone similar in shape and size to what I believe to be something like the TR3, but not sure... I say 'top secret' only because I am an avid commercial, private, and military airplane watcher and this was definitely not one I recognized or have ever seen before. While living in Northern Cal most of my early life, I got to see just about everything that came out of Beile AFB. And living here in L.A. and spending much time going to air exhibits at the Van Nuys Airport and air shows at Edwards AFB, I became familiar with many military aircraft.

The third sighting was just after midnight (about 12:30a.m.) of the 4th or July 2017. I was on my balcony here in the San Gabriel Valley watching the remainder of our neighborhood fireworks aerials when I noticed a bright glowing red orb off in the distance just south of our city. My first thought was it was a Chinese Lantern. I continued to watch it as it slowly made its way Northward but now far off to the South-West of me; about a mile or two but was definitely larger in size than I would have expected a Chinese Lantern would be this was at least as large as a small hot air balloon. As it continued to come closer, I would now make out that it had a glowing aura surrounding the red-glowing core, however, the core did begin to dim slightly. The outer shell appeared to be semi-transparent with a slight-faint halo-y glow, clearly visible as it shown to be greenish white in color contrasted to the inner-reddish glow. It was now straight out in front of me, about half a mile, now clearly large in size, circular in shape and distinctly glowing.

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Artist: Liam Thomas
Title: No Time
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