Frightening Bigfoot Encounter at Spring Hill Mountain, West Virginia

I am a 35-year-old hunter and fisherman. I own about 10 acres of land in Spring Hill Mountain, South Charleston, West Virginia. The only thing on my property is my house and the family junkyard, the rest is a large ridge line that butts up against the rear of my house which we own all the way to the top.

It was late August 2013. I work the late shift so when I get home I always do an hour or two of housework. It was about 430 am when I took the cat box out to empty it in the high grass (5ft+) that separates my backyard from the junkyard, and past that is the ridge line. The ridge line is about 30 to 40 degrees and about a mile to the top.

That night I was trying to get the work done ASAP so I could catch some extra sleep. So I flipped on the back porchlight, unlocked the door, opened it, and walked outside. I did this very quickly, and after taking a couple of steps toward the stairs, I began to hear "ba - da - bum - ba - da - bum". I knew this sound instantly, it was a small herd of deer. I scare these deer on a nightly basis when I come home from work. The deer were on my left in the field beside my house about 30 yards away, outside the porch lights range, and now they are running away. I continue to walk the 10 steps or so and down the 12 steps to ground level. I bend over and dump the litter box in front of the high grass.

As I stand up I hear a noise no more than 7 ft away and directly in front of me within the high grass. Something was standing up at the same time as me. In my mind, I wasn't worried in the slightest. Once a month or so I have to chase people out of my junkyard. Cussing and yelling the whole time at them. I assume this is another thief, I get a stern look on my face and get ready to start giving them the treatment. I see a large dark head raise up out of the high grass, but now the shoulders begin to come up and out of the grass. This absolutely blew my mind and I completely froze. I could see no features, and while I was only 7 to 8 ft away the moon was 3/4 full and was backlighting this thing. It was so tall that it was blocking out the ridgeline and part of the moon. It had to have been at least 8 or 9 feet tall and three times wider than me.

There I am standing (still with the litter box in hand) eye to eye (rather I'm staring at its head) with some unknown creature. I don't know how long we stood staring at each other. I remember thinking that it was out of focus or something but by the moonlight bleeding through the edges of this thing, it was furry or hairy. I am a first responder, I have been trained to always be in control and I have never been scared even counting the three bear encounters (one included a bluff charge). This scared me bad. I'm standing there yelling to myself, "Run. Run now. That thing can just reach out and grab you. Run" but my body would not move. Then it begins to move. I think I'm dead at this point. Something, arm-shaped, swings across the top of the grass and the body gets thinner. It was about 4 or 5 of its steps before I realized it had turned around and was now walking away from me, very clearly on two feet, towards the ridgeline. I still couldn't move.

It took till it hit the bottom of the ridgeline before I could move. I ran, still with the cat box, as fast as I could to the stairs, up and inside the door. All I could think was you have to get your gun. As I enter the back door I reach for the deadbolt and my hands are shaking so badly that I can barely lock it. I tell myself to take a breath because I will never get the key into my gun safe shaking this bad. I take the biggest gasp of my life. It was only then that I realized that I had not been breathing, from the time that I stood up to now I had not taken a single breath. In a flash, I got to my room, opened the safe, and pulled out my already-loaded AR. I stood about 10 ft away from the backdoor with my weapon ready just waiting. It was about then I got a massive wave of nausea. All I can think is "It's just shock. Be ready, be ready it's coming!" I am trained on the center of the door and the moment I heard a noise I was going to unload that 30 clip straight through the door. I kept thinking that I had pissed it off. It was within 20 yards of the deer and seemed to be attempting an ambush on them. Well, I screwed all that by scaring the deer, and I was sure it would be back. Thank whatever God you chose that it did not.

It made no noise aside from the footfalls and I smelled nothing. I remember thinking afterward that it could have easily attacked or just dragged me up that mountainside and no one would know anything. They would have just found an empty house with an unlocked back door. I can't tell you I saw a Bigfoot but I can say it was no bear or man. I saw some kind of an unknown large hairy bi-pedal creature.

I have never told my encounter to anyone and this will be the only/last time I speak of it to anyone. I used to have a passing interest in Sasquatch, thinking it would be cool if they really did exist. I now will not consume anything to do with it and never will." WV