I don't know what we saw. If my daughter hadn't been with me and
seen it too, i'd have chalked it up to imagination. She was with
me, and she did see it. At the time, we were living
in a small town south of Fort Worth, Texas. My daughter and I
were on our way to a larger town to do some school shopping, have
a little mother daughter time. It was close to dusk and we drove along
the winding road through the farmland around us, but it was still light enough
to see clearly well into the distance. Two hundred yards ahead of us was
a flatbed truck. As we drove along, what I first assumed was a
large black trash bag flew out of the back of it and went straight up
in the air. Most trash when it flies out the back of a truck
will do that, so I gave it very little thought. And then it
started gliding straight toward our little Toyota Corolla. As it got closer and it
grew bigger, I began to realize that this was no trash bag. It
had wings that were spread out, but they weren't flapping, which made me
wonder if this was someone on a glider. It continued to move even closer,
and as it did so, it began to lose its altitude. Now
it was flying so low, and I thought it was going to land on
our car. I was so sure of this that I quickly closed the window
in the sunroof. This thing reminded me of the creature from the movie Jeeper's
Creepers. And as low as it was flying and as close to us as
it came, it should have landed on our car. I honestly don't know
how it didn't. And as soon as it passed over us, I looked
in the rear view mirror to see where it had gone, but it wasn't
there. I reopened the sunroof and I looked up. It wasn't over us
either. It had disappeared. I looked over at my and I realized that
she was doing the same thing. She turned all the way around in her
seat looking for it. Neither of us said a word. I wasn't about
to stop the car, so I kept my eyes on the road and kept
moving forward. We'd gone a mile or two before I finally spoke up.
Did you see that? Oh my god, what the hell was that thing?
My daughter interrupted before I could finish my question. I don't know,
I cried. We were both completely freaked out by what we'd seen, and
neither of us could identify. It didn't look like a bird, and it
didn't fit the description of a moth man. It appeared to have burlap and
leathery wings, and it had a humanoid head. There was no beak,
no feathers, and no glowing eyes. It was completely blended together, like
it was a single entity and not a person on a glider. If I
had been alone, I would have said it was all my imagination, it
was a trick of the sun, or a product of watching too many scary
movies. But I wasn't alone. My daughter was there too, and neither
one of us to this day can explain what we saw. I'm from a
small town in Wayne County, West Virginia. It's located in the middle of
nowhere, but for reference, East Lynn Lake is to the west and Cavwolingo's
State Forest is to the south. The landscape is made up of a series
of heavily wooded hollers and ridges, with the occasional hilltop field and creek bottoms
being the only flat spots in the whole area. Most of the roads follow
the creeks and ridges. The first time I ever heard of Bigfoot as being
real happened when I was thirteen or fourteen years old. Two of my cousins,
Jason and Junior, told me their story. They were following a slow
poke old couple on Route thirty seven through East Lynn Lake State Park near the
Lick Creek boat ramp. They said, the older couple suddenly slammed on their
brakes to avoid a giant sasquatch crossing the road in front of them. There
was a wide spot just beyond the boat ramp and playground where the old couple
pulled over and my cousins pulled in right behind them. The four watched as
the massive beast ran down the steep hill towards the lake. It was winter,
so with the lake at winter Pool, it was about twenty feet wide.
Where the creature jumped across. It ran up the hill on the other
side at an unbelievable pace, disappearing into the brush about halfway up the opposite
hill. I knew they were stoned when they were telling me the story,
so I thought they were probably making it up to get a laugh. Now
that I've seen and heard these things. I know they were telling the truth.
About a year after hearing my cousin's tale, I had my first encounter.
I was on the UKC Competition raccoon hunt. My dad and I both
had dogs entered in the hunt, and we were cast out separately. I
was too young to drive, so I had to ride with one of the
fellows i'd been cast out to hunt against. It was a great hunt for
my group, with me and my beloved blue tick coonhound way in the lead.
Old Blue was the best dog I'd ever hunted with, and I loved
that dog as much as a fifteen year old hillbilly could love one. We
had about thirty minutes of alloted time left for the hunt, but had run
out of normal hunting spots. One of the hunters knew a spot close by,
However, it required driving down a rough road to get there. It
was about a half mile away and then straight up a rocky West Virginia mountain
all the way to the top. I don't know why this sounded like a
good idea, but we all agreed and off we went. We drove the
two beat up trucks up the creek bed and then slowly began ascending up a
steep, rocky, unkept road. It was more like a four wheeler trail
than a road. We reached the top and turned the dogs loose down the
other side of the hill. After just a few minutes, everyone's dogs came
back except mine, and I called for Blue over and over, but to
no avail. The other hunters were ready to go, but still Blue had
not showed up. I told them to go ahead without me and send my
dad back up here to get me. They acted like they didn't want to
leave me, but I insisted now. I assured them I'd been hunting in
the dark wood since I was a toddler, and that I would be okay.
I wasn't afraid of the woods of the dark. After much debate,
they all left. I stood there alone in the dark. I didn't turn
on my light so that my eyes would adjust to the darkness. Not long
after the tail lights disappeared into the darkness, I heard movement coming through the
brush towards me. I quickly turned on my light and shined it on my
best friend running towards me. I saw eye shine behind him. Blue rushed
into my arms with an urgency that told me something was wrong. I snapped
the lead onto his collar and then turned the light back on in the direction
from which he had come. About fifty feet or so away from us stood
a large man with wide set eyes that glowed when the light hit them.
Except this was no man. He was way too big. His brownish red,
three inch long hair moved in the breeze as my heart sank into my
stomach. In a soft tone, I said hello, but there was no
reply. And then I said, I've got a gun, so don't come
any closer. I was bluffing. I didn't have a gun, and Blue
positioned himself between me and the enormous thing that was now moving towards us,
its hand up to block the light from its eyes. Stop right there,
I said, a little louder. I'll shoot you if you come any closer.
I started backing down the road, pulling my dog with me. I
was never more frightened in my life. I felt the warm stream of urine
run down my leg as I continued to back away from the beast. I'm
going to die right here, right now, I thought, and I knew
I was helpless to prevent it. I started praying out loud Lord, God,
please just let me out of here, and I'll never sin again.
I was bargaining, I'll obey your commandments. Please just don't let this thing
kill me. The creature turned and I saw another one behind it. It
was a smaller, darker one, possibly black. I could almost make out
breasts, so I assumed it was a female. They chattered between themselves while
I kept slowly backing away, never taking my light off of them, and
in a flash, one went right and the other went left, and I
lost sight of both of them. I shined the light around in every direction,
but I couldn't see anything. I couldn't hear anything either. I turned
off my light and tried to let my eyes adjust to the darkness, and
after a few minutes I started walking down the road towards the creek. I
heard the movement on both sides. As I walked, I would stop and
turn my light in the direction I heard the sound, but I couldn't see
anything, and when I stopped to listen, the sound stopped. I turned
the light back on the rocky road and kept walking towards the creek. I
decided at that moment that there would be nothing I could do if they wanted
to kill me, so I just walked as normally as I could down the
uneven road. Blue, who normally walked in front of me, was behind
me, then on my right, and then on my left for a few
seconds, and then behind me again. He didn't growl, he acted as
scared as I was. Somehow I managed to make it to the creek,
but I couldn't take it anymore. The tears poured from my eyes like a
faucet, and I cried out, thank you God in a loud and confident
voice. I wasn't out of the woods yet, but I felt like these
creatures knew God, like they wouldn't touch me only because of God. And
I splashed down the creek fearlessly, knowing they wouldn't touch me. I pulled
Blue, who was still scared to death and walking with his tail between his
legs, all the way to the main road, and then I stood there,
soaking wet from the urine and the creek water, and I cried while
I waited for my father to arrive. Twenty minutes later, I saw that
old Dodge pull up. I was never so happy to see my dad in
my life. Normally I had to pick that stubborn blue tick up to get
him in the truck bed, but not that night. He leaped up on
the tailgate and dove into his safe, warm dog box. I walked around
the truck and I opened the door, but before I got in, I
took one last look towards the creek. They were standing there watching me in
the glow of the tail light, and I waved to them and I jumped
in the cab. My father took one look at me and asked, what
happened to you. I must have had a little accident, I said,
with a smile. He handed me an old jacket and told me to sit
on it, adding that he didn't want that peacemel all over his truck.
I'm crying right now as i'm writing this. It's so hard to tell anyone,
and that's why I'm telling everyone. Until now, I've never told a
soul, not my dad that night, nor my best friend, or even
my wife. I remember what I thought of my cousin's story, and I
didn't want others to think the same about me. I've kept it bottled up
for all these years, and now at least it's out. I didn't make
good on my promise to God either, but I'm sure he forgives me.
That was the only hardcore visual I've ever had of these preachers or people.
I know. They're people. They have a soul just like we do.
They know God just like I do, No, probably better than I do.
I think they have a relationship with God that we can't even comprehend.
A few years later, when I was nineteen, my mom and dad told
me a story about a big, skinny bear they saw on a cemetery road
near Capelingo State Forest. Mom said it didn't look like a bear. She
said, it looked like a bigfoot. Dad quickly interrupted and said it was
a bear, a skinny bear that crawled low to the ground on its belly,
trying to hide. I didn't act like I thought it was a sasquatch,
but I knew it was. Later Mom told me she thought it looked
more like a bigfoot than a bear. I had one more encounter when I
was twenty seven years old. I was camping with an old girlfriend and her
kids at East Lynne Lake. It was a weekend after school had started back
in the fall, so there weren't any other campers. We picked the last
campsite at the end of the campground. Her kids fell asleep in the pop
up camper. Around eleven PM. My girlfriend and I were sitting at the
fire when acorns and small pine cones started landing in the fire, and then
they started hitting us. I got a flashlight and scanned the area looking for
pranksters, but I didn't see a thing. No one was around anywhere.
The hills on the side of us were steep, really steep, and we
were at the last campsite, and the acorns and pine combs were coming from
those hills. We got scared and we went inside, but then they started
hitting the camper, heard chatter coming from up the hill behind us. It
all sounded so familiar. The memory of that night raccoon hunting came flooding back
to me. I knew who it was then, and I told my girlfriend
it was raccoons, and she believed me. I started praying and it stopped,
like turning off the switch. It was pretty cool, but scary.