Screaming or howling in Geauga County, Ohio

My story goes back to mid-August of 1980. I was around 13 years old and my best friend was 12. We had been badgering our parents for walkie-talkies for a couple years because we used to play in the woods so often. Much to our delight, my friend's father was cleaning out their attic and found a set left by the previous owners of the house. He cleaned them up, got us new batteries and we were on our way. There were very few houses in our area at the time and plenty of wooded areas to play. We headed down to where a new road was being cut. The crews had basically ploughed a rough dirt "road" almost 1/2 a mile into the dense forest off of our road. We got almost to the end when we headed back into the woods (west). We started heading toward the direction of an old quarry that had been abandoned for many years. We had gone in about 100 yards when we agreed to start walking in opposite directions, but parallel to the "road", so we could test the range on the walkie-talkies. We were alternating our responses for about 40-50 yards when my friend stopped responding. I could still see him in the breaks of the foliage, so after several attempts to reach him via the walkie-talkies, I just called out to him. He came back across the radio and told me not to shout or move. I asked him what was happening and he told me to be very still because he saw something behind a large tree that had fallen about another 40 yards further in. It had just stormed about a week earlier and many trees in the woods had fallen. This particular tree had its roots exposed, but was still suspended, on the "leaf-end", about 3-5 feet above the ground due to a tangle of vines. He said that he could "feel" the "something" watching him and he was scared to move. I told him that I didn't see anything and I would walk towards him. He warned me again not to move and said that the "thing" was shifting its weight and started moving toward "my end" of the tree. I stood there looking at the root disk and suddenly saw what appeared to be a dark face and broad shoulders. I too could "feel" this "thing" watching me. The creature, if you will, moved back and forth as if studying my friend and me. The height was undiscernable, but had to be above six feet tall. It was hard to see the legs, but those also appeared to be dark in colour. After about 5 minutes of this "thing" alternating vantage points, I had enough and was ready to make a dash for the road. My friend reluctantly agreed to move toward the spot we started while keeping an eye on the fallen tree. We finally met up and began to back up. We had only gotten a few yards when we saw the creature rise up and put its hands on the trunk by the root-disk. My friend and I screamed at full volume and started to run for the "road". We turned only once after hearing a loud crack of wood, possibly a branch or something underfoot, to see this creature running almost noiselessly in the opposite direction. It, again, was very difficult to see, but appeared to be completely black, powerfully built and running on two legs. We ran all the back home and said we would keep this incident between us. A few days later, my friend's father said he had read an article in the Geauga Times Leader (a local paper) stating a woman in a nearby town had seen a Sasquatch. We asked what a "Sasquatch" was and his dad laughed, saying it was a cross between an ape and a man and it wasn't real. We read the article and it sounded exactly like what we had seen! My friend's older brother said that he had heard something following him along the Chagrin River as he was going to a friend's house a week before and joked that it might have been the same thing as what was reported in the newspaper article. I never spoke of this incident until I was into my adulthood and had moved out of the area. I still haven't gotten over that sensation and think about it every time I take a walk in the woods.