A group of friends were camping out on the Montour Trail in western Pennsylvania. One of the group encounters a 8-9 foot unknown humanoid while gathering wood. A frightening incident!
The following account was forwarded to me by a 2nd party:
"At the time of writing this I am living in western Pennsylvania, a little south of Pittsburgh. I was in Boy Scouts for most of my life so I feel very comfortable in the woods and go camping often. Upon hearing Governor Wolf's school closure plan I decided that it was time for some cold weather camping. It was March, it wasn't that cold but it did drop to 40 f at night, and the people who I went weren't really avid campers. If you're from Pittsburgh you may know the Boggs campsite on the Montour Trail in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania. That's where we went. They, of course, only brought weed and alcohol and didn't bring any sleeping bags, blankets, or pillows. So naturally I assumed they were going to sit by the fire all night.
It was light when we first got there and the fire pit was still smoldering, very cool, we use the coals from the previous camper's fire to light ours and immediately I knew that I would have to provide wood for the fire until I went to bed. They passed out beer at around 3 PM (times are gonna be a bit dodgy because I wasn't near my phone) and after having 2-3 beers I just wanted dinner. They made Ramen noodles and cheese which was amazing (they had a weird name for it) and burgers over the fire. By this time it would have had to have been close to 5 PM because it started to rain a little bit, as was forecasted. So we took shelter in the shelter that was on site and occasionally one of them would throw some sticks on the fire (sticks were all they seemed to be able to find even though I brought 2 saws and an axe) and I would cut up some logs.
By the time the rain stopped all 4 of us smoked a blunt and were sitting around the fire. It was light out, so we'll call it 7 PM. After a while of just hanging out they ask if I had any blankets. I always have blankets. Nothing special but we've had some pretty bad snow storms in the past and a couple scratchy car blankets are always useful. They each got a blanket except for 'R', as we'll call him, who got my summer sleeping bag that I brought just in case.
By now it was dark, 9-9:30 PM, and the fire was getting low. I start off to find some more wood because they wanted to smoke another blunt. Now you have to understand that I'm 6'5" and a semi frequent user of the devils lettuce so my tolerance is kind of high. I return with the wood and we spark up another blunt, a smaller one, and just kinda hang out and talk and listen to music while were high. Good times. Eventually the fire, again, dies down a little bit and, again, its my job to get more wood. Because we had been there for a while and there were people there before us most of the wood near the shelter was either really small or all used up so I had to keep going farther and farther away from camp to find wood. It was 12:30 AM, and close to 50 degrees still so were all doing well. I have a flashlight, a really nice one that I use for scuba diving, that is kind of bright so I use it on the low setting on land.
At this point I'm far enough away from camp that my friends can't really see me. There's like an embankment between the Montour Trail and someone's driveway that you have to cross to get to more woods. But I'm comfortable alone because I knew what I was doing and they could hear me if I needed them.
I start to hear a weird whistling sound, kind of like someone inhaling through a snorkel, but I chalk it up to the wind. The air was starting to get kind of cold so I just took back what I had and put some on the fire. 1-2 AM, ~40 degrees with some wind, nothing severe. I have on 2 long sleeve shirts and an Army surplus coat that is SUPER warm but my friends are in windbreakers and hoodies and, oh yeah, its raining. Off to get more wood.
This time I started taking into consideration the type of wood that I would collect. There was a lot of pine but that burns fast which is why I had to go collect it so often. The stretch of woods near the driveway was pretty much all pine, a few maples but nothing big. So I keep walking knowing that this area has both conifers and deciduous trees in close proximity to each other. As I'm wandering and collecting wood I notice that the rain has turned to a super fine snow. Time to head back, just in case it picks up.
Then the whistling started again, a lot louder now. Ok, weird. There isn't any more wind than there was before. Maybe it changed directions. I keep walking. By now I can hear the music from camp and pick up the pace a little bit. Just as I summit the embankment and prepare to clamber down the other side a LOUD noise echos behind me. Tree fell? Shining my flashlight around I couldn't see any signs that that was the case and didn't see any source. Deer knocked something over? In my head it doesn't matter because I'm back at camp anyways and I can try the marsh behind our shelter next time. 3 AM? They were COLD. The temperature dropped to around 30 degrees and the wind and snow had picked up. Car blankets helped the boys a little bit but they weren't able to go to sleep in the tent that I brought without freezing, except for 'R' who slept like a rock all night after about 3:30 AM. We decide to finish off the weed and give the last beers a good talking to.
It's about 4:30 AM. I'm about ready for bed at this point because I'm not super high or drunk or anything but I was definitely tired. I offer to go collect more wood before I retire to my 0 degree sleeping bag and cot (I camp comfy when I don't have to carry it far) and they said they would join me. they must have been cold. We split up and I end up heading back to where I was before, except this time I left my flashlight on high and I made a bunch of noise to scare off that deer or whatever that was there earlier.
I end up a little further away from camp that I had intended to be because there were only pine branches on the ground over here. Then the whistling starts again. This time I could tell the direction it was coming from, my left, and shined my flashlight around that area before just returning to collecting wood. Then the sound stops briefly, then picks up again in a different direction less than a minute later. This time in front of me and a little to the right, back into the pines. Maybe the branches of certain trees catch the wind just right and make the noise, I think "whatever" and move on. Then on my way back the noise was following me, darting from left to right but always like right behind me. I don't see anything so whatever. Then the noise makes like one sharp whistle and pauses, then I hear it, "Damn it's cold out here."
It was 'R', but I couldn't find him with my flashlight so I called "where you at?" It sounded like he turned around because I heard a branch snap and a bit of movement. I pointed my flashlight at where the sound was coming from and I didn't see 'R' anywhere. Maybe he's behind a bush or a tree or something. I call out again "R?" No reply this time. He might be lost or something because we weren't at camp and he saw my flashlight moving so he came to look. "R, where are you?" Nothing. Then, louder. "I'm going back to camp," because I thought he was trying to scare me. Shining my flashlight around one last time I spot something dive into a bush about 40 feet from where I had heard 'R' turn around. "I see you big man, grab some wood and come back." He's 6' and 230-250 lbs. I shine the light around for a few more seconds then turn around again and start walking.
The whistling is back. No matter what speed I moved at it always seemed the same distance away. I decide that I'd just kind of sit under a tree and wait for 'R' to pass by because he had to come back some time, right? I wanted to save the battery of my flashlight so I turned it off and closed one eye, so it would adjust faster. By now the snow had picked up a good bit, which is another reason to stop, in case 'R' got lost. I couldn't really see super far because there was a lot of cloud cover despite it being a full moon. The whistling never got closer but it did start to move around a little bit, in a really odd circle. It would start in one spot, stop, then promptly start in another spot that was in a different direction. I realized that it had to be the wind or something because it was moving super fast and was moving at random. Cool, now where the f*ck is 'R?' I turn on my flashlight between whistles and call out again "R?" It's important to note here that the whistling never picked up while I looked around. It normally only stopped for a second or two. It was SUPER quiet.
The snow was laying on the ground and we had 2-3 inches on the ground by now so maybe that muffled it? Anyways, upon not hearing 'R' I thought that maybe I missed him or didn't hear him at all and started to head back to camp. As I stood up and brushed the dirt off my ass I shined the flashlight around one more time. I was thinking in my head "I definitely heard him." After I stood up with the wood in my arms and began to walk back towards camp I saw something move out of the corner of my eye. My flashlight, being a diving light, has a wrist mount that I was wearing so I could use it and carry things. I turned towards and and scanned the area with my flashlight. Nothing. Not even 4 steps more and I saw another movement. Now the whistling was back. Damn that gets annoying, sounds like a fat guy who just ran up the stairs. Flashlight was on low so I could see maybe 40 ft around me and didn't see anything but I knew it was time to pick up the pace.
Now the whistling was followed by flashes of movement. Great, it's not the wind. At this point I'm speed walking, being tall I can MOVE if I have to and I was definitely traveling at jogging speed. 'R,' a lumbering beast when he runs, could not move this fast or this quietly through the woods. I decided to turn off the flashlight and move into some brush that was close by. Not sure why but I was getting a little freaked out and had the shakes even though I was warm. It was silent again. Well f*ck me. What is it? Is it hunting me? Coyote? Not a coyote.
There was a good period of silence, then there was whistling. This time it wasn't doing circles around me, it was just moving around where I had turned off the flashlight. My eyes adjusted and I peeked out from under the bush that I was rolled up under (I tried). Nothing, just that damned whistling. By this point I was pretty much sober, like if I got pulled over I could NAIL the field sobriety test. I waited for a little while the thing just kind of looked around. Then I heard it speak. In a really gargled impression of me it called out "Big man." It took everything I had not to panic. Holy sh*t. Not 'R,' not human, not a deer, not the wind. Then it spoke again "R" cutting off really strangely like you just lifted the needle off of a record but picking back up again with "back to camp" still in my voice. MY F*CKING VOICE! I normally don't like hearing recordings of myself anyways but now I REALLY don't like them. It said a few more things, in different voices that I didn't recognize. All the voices were either talking about how cold it was or questions like "what was that?" and "stop f*cking with me," but they all seemed like whoever was talking had some something built up in their throat.
Then it went quiet. I poked my head out of the bushes again and saw something sitting against a tree in the same position I had been in. Left leg straight out, right leg at an angle, hands behind my head. It could have fooled me as being 'R.' We both kind of sit the same way except his ADHD usually makes him fidget with his hands. OK, so who's sitting in the woods with me. I lay there, silent, and just watch. It begins to whistle. Ah, so that's where that was coming from. It moves its hand around in a fist out in front of it, the same way that I look around with my flashlight, and then started to stand up. Oh f*ck it's tall. I only weigh 166, skin and bone mostly so when I say that this thing was skinny don't take it lightly. I could see how thin its long spindly arms were silhouetted against the snow that coated a bush behind it. When it stood up it was hunched over, not sure if I was slouching when I stood up but I certainly do slouch. It walked a few paces away from the tree and stood up the whole way. HOLY SH*T!
I worked with backdrops for theater productions and the walls we use the most are around 8 feet high and this thing would have easily been able to see over one. I'm talking by at least a foot. It slowly peered around, no hair on its head and its side profile showed a SUPER disfigured skull. The jaw hung pretty far down and there weren't really lips that stuck out but it was hard to tell because of how dark it was. It let out one final "R?" Big man?" Kind of like someone with tortures would say it because they were just random words that it strung together. Then it SCREAMED!
My dad used to take me to airshows a lot as a kid and this has to have been the same pitch and volume as an F-16. I couldn't move. It peered around, head just seemingly sweeping the area. Then it crouches down and leaps for a tree with the lowest branch being around 10-15 feet and lands feet first on one of the branches and sits there, squatting, whistling, and just staring around. Then it takes off. Faster than should be allowed in nature. I count to ten in my head. The forest sleeps. I slowly make my way out from under the bush and begin to creep back towards camp, this time avoiding using my flashlight or making any noise if possible. I climb the embankment and take one last look towards the woods, unsure if that just happened or if I was asleep. I tumble down the other side of the embankment and return to the relative safety of the big fire with 'Y' and 'J', the other two who went for wood.
"Where's your wood?" asks 'Y'. "Oh it, uh, had bugs." "It's fine, we got a lot anyways." They stacked up a solid pile of oak and pine, not enough for the night but enough for a little while at least. "Where's R?" I ask warily. "Check the tent" there he was passed out snoring the way he always does. Well, ok then. I climbed into my sleeping bag to warm up a little bit because I was covered in snow when I got back. Then I heard it scream again! Oh please don't tell me it's coming here. The other two looked at me wide-eyed. Normally, if I recognize a sound, I say what it is out loud so they know what's up. I had no response. They asked if I heard the first one. Good, they heard it too. I answered with a nod as I unlocked the car in case we needed to book it. They asked if I saw it. Nod. What was it? No f*cking clue. I described it to them quietly so that I could listen for more noises and I told them about it imitating my voice. 'Y' was pretty freaked out 'J' thought I was bullsh*tting him and said it was some kind of owl. I got out of my sleeping bag threw my coat back on and joined them at the fire.
For the first time in awhile I looked at my phone. 5:45 AM. We looked up native owl calls and came up empty handed. The same with every other animal we tried. 'J' seemed a little nervous. 'Y' suggested that "maybe its a truck on the highway." "Yeah that's probably it" I replied blankly and 'J' gave me a look that said that he knew it probably wasn't. They didn't sleep. I forced sleep upon myself so that we wouldn't die on the car ride home.
The next morning we went for a walk. It didn't snow much after I got back so you could kind of follow my footprints. The tree the thing leaped onto was out of reach of me on J's shoulders. 'R' was still asleep, but I think I might have been able to reach it if I was on his shoulders. The tree I sat under had scratch marks on it. I think they're from deer shedding the velvet off of their antlers but it creeped me out nonetheless. The tree it sat under had footprints EVERYWHERE. There seemed to be no order to them at all. It was amazing. It looked like it had run over every square inch of that area, coming as close to the bush I was in as 2 me-lengths.
I don't really know much about cryptids or anything but when I got home I Googled "north american tall skinny cryptid" and the second result was from parade, a list of cryptids. After ruling out everything else on the list I came across the picture of a Wendigo that has antlers. Not quite but pretty close described as, tall and skinny and super fast. I did my research and every picture has antlers but I can't find any evidence that, other than a few movies, it had antlers. I don't know. What I saw definitely didn't have antlers but it matched everything else, even down to the whistling. I'd appreciate some feedback." JD
NOTE: The Wendigo can take various forms. I just don't think that it is a Wendigo. They are aggressive, according to reports I've read over the years. There have many similar sightings throughout Pennsylvania in the past few years. Stan Gordon and I recently discussed it during his appearance on Arcane Radio. This is some type of unknown flesh and blood humanoid. That's all we have at the moment. Lon
UNEXPLAINED CRYPTID / BIGFOOT / UPRIGHT CANINE / HUMANOID ENCOUNTER OR SIGHTING?
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Lon's Suggested Reading List - Books & Films / DVDs
Lon's Suggested Reading List - Books & Films / DVDs