An account in Monongalia County, West Virginia

There are three encounters that I have had not in the physical or in another words I did not have a visual sighting but had heard weird behavior in the woods. To begin with I am a 40 year responsible adult male and I have not told anyone about these encounters or experiences that I have had for fear of being ridiculed and/or being labeled as loony by my friends, family and the community. I found this website many years ago on my own by accident and was surprised to read about others who had the same experiences as I had. I finally found the courage to tell you what had happened to me. I have been in and lived near the woods all my life. In my family hunting is a tradition. All the animal noises and natural sounds of the woods I know and am familiar with and have honed over time a very acute sense and perception that most hunters have or any outdoors man would have honed. I would go sqirrel hunting often after work along some railroad tracks that ran just a quarter of a mile from my home at the time. One late fall afternoon I was just walking with my .22 mag rifle at the ready quietly along the tracks when I heard a noise or a rustling of leaves in the woods when I suddenly stop and stood motionless while I scanned the woods with my eyes looking for the source of the noise thinking it my be a large gray or fox squirrel. After awhile I did not hear nothing more so I moved on. Now I have hunted alone many times and had never been afraid of anything but just after I had moved on I began to hear what sounded like foot steps in the woods just behind me and parelling me 50 to 75 ft. away. At first I thought of deer or a dog or a person walking up in the woods and after a few minutes I decided to call out to who ever may be there and let them know that I was where I was there for safety precautions. Well there was no reply and I called out a couple more times just to be sure. No reply. So as it was about 1/2 hour before sunset I was compelled to call it quits for that day and head back to my truck which was parked about a mile back near the RR. Whatever it was proceeded to follow me keeping pace with me at a parallel distance of 50 ft. It became more and more clear that what ever it was was heavy and big for several times along the way back I heard loud heavy branches breaking and heavy footfalls that I know could not have been a deer or bear (there has not been a bear seen in the area that I was hunting for as long as I can remember nor have I had ever found any sign of one in that area.). Every time I would stop it would stop and when I moved it moved this when on until I came to the area near where my truck was parked and was an opened field. Whatever it was followed me right up to where the wood line was about to end and the field begin. The other encounter happened in the same area only a year or two later and this time the unknown animal was shadowing me on the other side of the tracks between the tracks I was on and the river. There was a heavy growth of rhododendron bushes that ran the entire length of the shelf of land that was about 50 yards wide from the river to the tracks. There is an embankment that is an accent of 75 ft. from the rhododendron bushes to the tracks above where I was at. I could see the wake that this thing was making from time to time through the rhododendron bushes for it was right in the middle of them as it was keeping up with me, which was remarkable to me how it did that without exposing itself in some manner, but again I thought through all the possibilities of what it could be for there are few animals that would follow you for a mile stopping and starting in sync with your every step. I never saw any part of it as it moved through the brush and even though I could see a wake made by the branches as it moved through the thick brush it was only here and there, mostly it was if a large contortionist where moving through the heavy with the brush with the utmost of ease. The third time was near spruce knob in Pocahontas County, WV while on a field trip for a summer class I was taking in the spring of 2003 some of my fellow classmates and I were outside one night trying to call in Bard Owls. After some minutes later we heard a few in the pine trees near our camp returning our calls. We were having fun with our success with calling them in and after 30 minutes we had called in 4 or 5 more in the pine trees that bordered the road across the road from our camp. Then all of a sudden while in the act of making more calls we heard a huge commotion up on the hill about 75 yards. from us it sounded like a couple of huge guys romping around and making the Bard Owl call, we all stood there trying to make out what it was but could not see anything. Someone shined a flashlight in the direction of the sounds and they ceased immediately. We did night hear anything more on that hill that night. I do not know for sure what it could have been but would not rule out that it could have been a bigfoot.