An account in Horry County, South Carolina

I recently told a story of an encounter that happened to me when I was 11 in cortland NY. I am now 30 and live in little river SC. About 2 weeks ago I was walking on highway 17 at about 9:00pm to the nearest store. along the way there is a small creek thats surrounded by wooods that appear to go several miles west of the area. as I approached this section of woods I heard this scattering in the brush. I figured it was a deer or even a wild dog. I went to the store which is about a 5 to 10 minute walk further down the road. as I was walking back which was probably 10 to 15 minutes later the traffic was bothering me so when i approached the same section of woods to get away from the highway I heard an even louder scatter in the bushes about 10 to 20 feet in the woods. I paniced and quickly ran back closer to the edge of the highway. there was no traffic now and I could hear everything clearly. I was too afraid to run so I walked quickly. I could hear this creature stomping through the brush real fast. I would stop for a second to look to see what was following me and it stopped too. I started off agian and I could hear another couple of footsteps that sounded as if it was the size of a bear. I stopped again and it stopped with me. as I approached an area that was partially lit by a company that had an outside light on i could see at the edge of the woods a creature that apeared to be squating down with its long arms in front of it. the hair looked to be about maybe 5 inches long and a light redish color. it looked more ape like than my fist encounter which leads me to believe that it might have been a skunk ape. I still cant say for sure what it was. I do know that if it was a bear, dear or wild dog it would have fleed when I walked by it the first time. instead it stayed