My encounter happened at the end of summer in 1973, or 1974. It was late August/early September, as it was the time the blackberries were ripening. I was 15 or 16 years old, and had a dirt bike that I rode on the many lease roads in the hills surrounding Bradford. The bike had an expansion chamber, which is an extremely loud exhaust system. I generally rode it every day on the hill behind our house in Bradford, so I knew all the roads and trails. My grandfather had built a lot of the roads with a bulldozer, years back, working for the Kendall Oil Company. We had also hiked this area extensively when my friends and I were kids, sometimes camping for the night. On one occasion when we were about 9 or 10, we were chased home by a frightening screeching in the late morning from the top of this hill. (Just two of us) We didn’t know what the noise was, only that we had to run from it. I only mention this as it was very close to the same area as where I had my encounter, and in my mind, the same animal. The day of the encounter, I had ridden up to the road at the ridgeline of the hill, and about a mile and a half towards the hospital area. I didn’t turn that way and instead went straight, towards the pipeline, which is a cleared area that runs straight up and down the mountain. I stopped there for a second, and turned back around about 1/4 mile to a group of blackberry bushes. I shut off the bike and started picking the berries, until the bees got to me, and I took my handful of berries and walked away. I walked back to the pipeline, stopping right before the clearing, hoping to catch some sort of animal crossing the clearing. I had been a hunter since I was very young, which is the custom in the area, and was very good at walking quietly in the woods. As I looked down the hill from the top of the clearing, I could see what looked like a bear, digging into the log that had been placed across the pipeline to keep people from using the cleared area as a road. I reasoned that he heard the noise of my bike going away, so he figured I was out of the area. The stink of the 2-cycle engine also probably masked the smell of me, as well. I was young enough to think I should get a closer look, so I got myself to a point about 50 yards away and uphill from the animal, and about 25 yards from the ridgeline road. I stood there and ate the berries and watched what I thought was the butt of the bear visible above the log. Remember; the log was about 50 yards down a steep hill, and the log was about 3 feet tall, and crossing the pipeline. The bear would have to be very large for me to see as much as I did, which was a good foot or more above the log, and he was on the other side of it. He seemed to be digging for bugs or something in the log. After a few minutes of me standing still watching him, he suddenly realized I was there. He stopped, tried to remain still for a minute, and all the time I still thought I was watching a bear. Then he stood up. This was no bear. It was the most surreal moment in my life, either then or now, and I’m 52 years old. He was tall, at least 7 feet, as his knees were just barely covered by the log. He had hair like that of a black bear’s fur that time of year, basically the same color and length, which obscured a lot of the features of his face. We both stood there frozen for a minute, staring at each other. My thought was to get out of there, but the only movement I could muster was to drop the few berries I had left. I started dropping berries, and he just turned and “walked” to the far side of the pipeline and into the woods, down a trail just to his side of the log. I say “walked”, because it was so smooth and graceful across that terrain, that I was completely overwhelmed. As I said, I thought I was pretty good at getting around in this terrain, and I am. The movement he used was so economical and efficient that I still see it in my mind and marvel. There was very little or no “bobbing” up and down; his arms swung, but not wildly, like you would expect with an ape. The arm swing wasn’t like a tight-rope walker either, as I may have needed to do, to walk across the area he walked. It was just smooth, amazing. I stood for a few seconds after he disappeared, then decided to get myself out of there. I ran back to my bike and headed the other way as fast as I could. Then I started thinking I should go see where he went. I turned around and headed back and down that pipeline to the tree. I got the bike to the trail he used, which is a trail that immediately takes you from light to deep shade, and stays perpetually muddy. I have tried that trail a few other times (with the same friend who was chased with me, years earlier) and have only been able to go a few yards before I had to get off the bike and push. I started to get bogged down, so I got back out as quick as I could. I don’t know what I was thinking, I guess I thought the noise would keep him away, but when I hit the mud I remembered that I couldn’t take that trail. It was always creepy dark back there, too. I wouldn’t have gone back there if it weren’t to prove to myself that I didn’t have to run away. I never looked for tracks. This is something else that’s very strange. I was a hunter, I looked for tracks everywhere. The muddy trail was probably covered with them. This has always bothered me. I can only think that my mind was so sure that no one would ever believe me, that proof was the farthest thing from my mind. The whole experience was so alien that I never told anyone for about 25 years. Back then, all the Bigfoot sightings were in Washington/Oregon/California. No one would have believed me. Maybe I also didn’t want anyone to find him. I felt extremely special to have had this experience, and I didn’t want to betray that or the Bigfoot. Anyone from Bradford will now be able to figure out where this happened from my story, and that bothers me. I don’t think they should be chased. They seem to be a very “human” animal, and maybe too vulnerable to our world and weapons. I’m posting this after having read the other “Bradford” sighting, and seeing the Elk County photos. I did quite a bit of hunting in Elk County, and it’s very easy for me to believe that those photos show a real, Bigfoot animal. As to the 1963 Bradford sighting, the “Barbour” Street location is very close to my sighting, and I will leave it at that.