Date: June 6 – 11
Location: West Virginia, Summers County
On the day of arrival, we arrived around 8:30 PM at the campsite. We set up camp and settled in for the night. It soon got dark, we were sitting around the fire talking. Around 10:30 I heard a noise that sounded like footsteps on brush to the left of our campsite. All I could do to alert everyone else of this sound was snap my fingers and point. Upon doing this Rick told Fletch that I had heard something moving in the wood-line. Fletch grabbed his spotlight and started walking down towards the road. When he got to the road he turned it on, started fanning it left to right, as to spot what was moving. At some point, a couple seconds later, he spotted what he related as a creature that was around 6.5 feet tall, with bright yellow eyes. The other three of us were still inside the camp, looking for flashlights and such, when Fletch whistled. I looked in his direction trying to figure out why he whistled and knew that he was seeing something at that point. He yelled that if we wanted to see it, we had better get down there. Well, as we started in that direction Fletch said that the creature turned, looked at us, turned back, looked at him. After this, it spun around 180 degrees and dropped down to all fours and disappeared. Fletch started fanning the light again as to catch it popping up in the overgrown area. Soon he widened the area he was scanning and I could see the silhouette of a creature standing next to a big oak tree. This tree was 20 yards from the campsite. As the light got closer and closer to it, the creature jumped behind this tree and stood there like it was trying to stay out of sight. I stepped up into the light, it disappeared. I had only lost sight of it for a split second and it was gone.
Interestingly, the area that the creature was standing in was overgrown with some very tall weeds, which was determined the next day, as Fletch walked into the area to look around. By visual estimate, the creature I saw was between nine and eleven feet tall. I determined this as I could only see Fletch from his shoulders up, as he stood in the tall weeds, next to that tree. If I recall correctly Fletch stands at six feet in height. The creature I observed was viewed from the mid torso level up and was very bulky, with broad shoulders. This creature moved very fast.
Later on that night Rick and Fletch decided that they were going to take a walk and look around. Myself and indybfhunter decided that we were going to sit in the car and talk. After talking for a while, we both passed out. Later, I was awakened to hear Rick and Fletch talking as the walked back into the campsite. Next thing I know, they are getting into the truck and I could hear them saying something about riding around and looking for evidence. Some time later, they returned and I was awakened again to hear Rick talking. I looked up and saw him messing with one of the lanterns that hung nearby, saying something to Fletch. I didn’t pay it much attention as I figured that the lantern had ran out of fuel or he was turning it down for the night. The next morning I asked him what he was saying about that lantern and he told me that he was telling Fletch that me and indybfhunter had probably turned it down to keep the light out of our faces while we slept. Basically, no one from our camp turned down any of the three lanterns down. They related that upon their return to camp all three lanterns had been physically turned down to the point that they were only still lit and putting off very little light. Myself and Indy related to them that we had not done anything to the lanterns after we had fallen asleep in the car.
Day one
This day proved to be pretty uneventful around the camp. Rick and Fletch left camp that morning, leaving myself and indybfhunter to watch over camp. They returned that afternoon from getting supplies, told me that stumpjumper wouldn’t be there until the next morning. Everyone pretty much stayed in camp except Fletch who walked into the grown up area across the road from our camp. He found teepee markers and possible locations where the creatures hid in the tall weeds. Fletch also found a possible track in the shorter grass, next to the creek bed. That night there were some owl calls and other sounds that could have been vocalizations.
Day two
Indybfhunter had to leave today. Rick and Fletch departed camp to take Indy to pick up his car and meet stumpjumper. I was alone in camp and the guys hadn’t been gone but maybe ten or so minutes. I decided to pick up some stuff and try to organize the camp a little better. About fifteen minutes had gone by and I happened to glance over into the grown up field to the right of our camp. It was a pretty still day with a very light breeze if any. There was a small oak that I could see swaying back and forth as if someone had a hold of it making it move. It swayed in a left to right kind of motion. Upon seeing this I became very aware that something was not right. I also felt very uneasy and started looking in every direction the way I was taught to in the military. This swaying tree kept swaying for about 30 or 40 minutes and then stopped. During the time that this tree was swaying I saw a momma groundhog and a baby groundhog come out of the woods. She was grumbling like she was agitated as they walked down the road. About ten minutes later another full grown ground hog came out of the overgrown field, also grumbling, as if something had ran it out of the woods. That whole day, while I was there by myself, I felt very uneasy. It is almost like I could sense some kind of danger. The only thing that broke the monotony was the occasional car or truck passing by. Interestingly, there was a couple with some kids who stopped on the road to ask me if I knew whether it was safe to swim in the river at the end of the camping area. I told them that I didn’t know, but a friend who lived there would know and that he would be back to camp soon. They left and that was when I noticed that the tree had stopped swaying. Stumpjumper arrived, he and his girlfriend set up their tent.
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Day three
Rick and Fletch went into town to pick up Tahni. While they were gone, stumpjumper and family walked down to the bridge. They came back and told me about something interesting they had found. Myself and stumpjumper went back to the creek bed to look around and found several things. Initially we were there to look at what appeared to be a feather marker of sorts. It consisted of three hen turkey feathers, stuck into the creek bank, in a fan formation, with a rock on top of them. Upon looking around the area further we noticed on the left side of the creek bank there were some large fish skeletons. Upon surveying this, I estimated there to be around 30 – 40 large catfish and garfish skeletons strewn all over the bank. Stumpjumper presented the idea that they had become landlocked as the water receded from a recent flood. Looking at the grade of the area I determined it to be around 35 – 40 degrees before it goes straight up on the side of the mountain. With that grade, in my opinion, it would be very unlikely that such a number of fish would become landlocked in the area. At most there would be 1 – 5 fish, if any that could be landlocked in that area.
On the same side of the creek as the fish skeletons we found what appeared to be a dead bird right on the edge of the bank. I didn’t look at it real close and assumed it to be a crow or a black duck. Later observation rendered that it was a turkey buzzard, which had its’ neck broken.
As we left the creek bed we also noted that there were some large cat prints up close to the road. I estimated this cat to be in the neighborhood of 120 lbs, due to the size of its’ print.
Rick and Fletch returned to camp and we discussed our findings with them. We then decided to look at the area again and also to check out another area where Rick had found possible prints in the past. We checked out the creek bed and then rode up to where we could walk down into the river bottom. We walked down into the river bottom and looked around. Upon entering the river bottom we spooked up a hen turkey which just ran off, later we found that she had chicks with her. We walked down to where we could see a nearby island that was considered a good place to investigate. On our way back to the main trail we found a tree that had been broken under weight, some tree bows and a possible print. We then returned to camp. That night there were more owl calls and distant howling sounds. There was also the sound of something hitting Fetch’s truck while everyone was sleeping..
Day four
That morning we got up and had breakfast. Stump and family walked down to the bridge again. After returning to camp, a short trip to the outhouse, stumpjumper brought something to my attention about the outhouse. The inside of the outhouse was painted with a white colored paint. It had several coats of paint on it also. There were allot of hair like fibers stuck into the paint, all over the inside of the outhouse, from about my knee level up. Samples of these fibers were collected. These fibers could be from a paint brush, but due to the frequency of presence in the paint, samples were collected just in case.
Stumpjumper had to leave that day. Myself and Rick went to his house to transfer video tapes and make a trip to the store. We returned that afternoon to find Fletch and Tahni craw-fishing in the creek. We walked along the creek with them looking around, to find more teepee formations by the road. We also found two possible tracks along the creek bed. We returned to camp and Fletch cooked crawfish for dinner. That night the campground was visited by some thugs, riding around very fast and acting suspiciously. Needless to say, after an attempt to infiltrate our camp, they gave up and went home. There were more owl calls that night
Day five
Fletch and Tahni left that morning to go to Rick’s house, to make some calls to a wrecker service and meet DB. Myself and Rick were in camp, the time was pretty uneventful. Fletch and Tahni and DB returned that afternoon and we started getting ready to leave. Later, we were ready to go, said our goodbyes and started our return trip home.
Other notes of interest:
On several occasions there were cars, or trucks that would drive through the camping area, or would stop on the road, turn around and leave. Two or three cars doing this wouldn’t have caught my attention, but there were several daily. I have surmised that the possibility exists that people are coming down there to see something that they have heard about. Some of these cars would also drive down and stop on the bridge as if they were looking for something.
Sunday afternoon I took a chicken thigh and leg, hung it in a tree where the creatures were seen the first night. The chicken was tied securely with parachute cord, so that one of two things would happen. Either it would be eaten there on the spot, or the tree branch would have been broken to get the chicken. Nothing messed with that chicken the whole time we were there, which was odd in itself. Since we have left, Rick has told us that the chicken had disappeared altogether.
During our stay, I also noticed that we were the only group camped in the upper campground. No one camped in the second campground either. It seemed to me that everyone who camped there went to the last campground right by the river. It could have been that all who camped there that week wanted to camp by the river, but it did seem a little odd to me.
Posted on Jun 17, 2003, 3:34 PM from IP address 12.28.170.185