I was fishing at Cadogan on the Allegheny River in western Pennsylvania. I parked at the top of the ramp going down to the river. It's not a boat ramp, just one for backing 4-wheel drives down to the water. It's getting to be just about twilight when I hear something moving down the hillside across from us. It's steep, but not too steep. I hear it barreling down the hillside but the brush is thick and really high. Better part of 12 feet. I'm waiting for a black bear to hop onto the road but it doesn't. It just stops in the middle of the last brush right beside the road.
Thinking it was still a bear I usher my friend and his 4-year-old daughter down to the river. There are a bunch of rocks there, a variety of sizes. I'm still at my car, less than 5 ft from my door and this brush is a good 30 ft away. So I know I can make it to my car and distract it with my horn and engine. And yet it never leaves the brush. Just shakes it violently. I stand there about 5 minutes and I can see it make its way up the hill. I didn't realize it was pushing the small trees around it. I wasn't connecting anything because of my adrenaline was high. I never saw it and it was too dark by that point.
I walk back down to the river and we're gathering up our stuff. It's getting way too creepy. We're packing up and I can hear a knocking sound coming from the hillside. I can see a group of people down river from us, but they aren't near any trees. They're actually on an outcrop and about 20 ft away from the treeline. This knocking is above us and slightly upriver. And even they had reacted to it, looking around and not knowing what's making the sound. I yell to them about possibly being a bear. They said they heard something coming down the hillside and seen my buddy running towards the water. They thanked us for the heads up.
As soon as they thanked us a rock came flying off the hillside in between us and them. We actually saw the rock hit the water. They jumped as I did. We really weren't expecting it. I turned around to see if my friend was up on the hill and was messing with us. As I turned he was just a few feet behind me holding his daughter and both were white as a ghost.
I decided to reach down and grab a rock to carry with me just in case it got real. 3 more times we heard these rocks hitting the water and I just had enough. Our site was all cleaned up and I took it as a perfect time to retaliate (not my best decision). But I knew where they were being thrown from. That damn brush up there. So I chucked it.
I knew there wasn't any trees around and I figured if I threw it it would probably just blow right through it. BUT IT DIDN'T!
It made a sound like someone who is beating their chest. And it rolled back out towards me. I actually heard whatever I hit the get the wind knocked out of it and it hit the hillside. It takes off down the road towards the other group. They start screaming...utter terror screams and start throwing whatever they could grab at it. I'm just standing there bewildered and watching them scatter. Few of them went into the water and the rest ran towards me.
All of a sudden someone yells 'GET IN THE TRUCK!' They took off to their truck. They literally left everything...nobody grabbed anything and they took off. I'll never forget their screams. I ran back up the hill and hopped in my car. My buddy ran up with his daughter right after they started shouting. He was crying and I've known this man for 20 years. I can count on one hand how many times I have seen him cry. I startup my car and we high-tailed it out of there.
Never seen what it was but I put everything together later that night. It's been 5 years since it happened and he absolutely refuses to go down there. Damn shame too because it's an amazing catfish spot. R
NOTE: Interesting account, because I received a Bigfoot report around that same North Buffalo area about a decade ago. There have been a few reports of Bigfoot observed wading and grabbing fish in the Allegheny River in nearby Ford City and Kittanning, which is about 25 miles northeast of Pittsburgh. Lon
Don't Look Behind You: Following Ghost Roads Into the Unknown
Silent Invasion: The Pennsylvania UFO-Bigfoot Casebook
Astonishing Encounters: Pennsylvania's Unknown Creatures, Casebook 3
A Menagerie of Mysterious Beasts: Encounters with Cryptid Creatures
UPDATED WEEKLY: Lon's Suggested Reading List - Books & Films / DVDs
