YEAR: 1999

SEASON: Fall

MONTH: November

DATE: Election Day

STATE: New York

COUNTY: Washington County

LOCATION DETAILS: Pike Brook Rd. Opposite trail to Black Mt. approx. 1/4 to 1/2 mile south of trail parking lot

NEAREST TOWN: Whitehall

NEAREST ROAD: Pike Brook Rd

OBSERVED: Not an actual sighting. However, I recently read an article in the Post Star Glens Falls NY newspaper about a BFRO gathering in Whitehall NY. To begin with, I had never heard of your organization nor knew that Whitehall was a supposed hot spot for Big Foot sightings. Let me tell you my story, all factual.

My family and I have owned property in the Dresden NY area (off of RT 22, a few miles north of Whitehall) since the early sixties through last year when I sold my property (located on Blue Goose Rd, old RT 22) last year. Back in 1999 while deer hunting off of Pike Brook Rd. in the Black Mt. area, I viewed some very strange tracks in the mud on a logging road and suddenly an awful, foul smell was in the area.

It was a damp, still early November day, thinking back it may have been Election Day. The time was around 8AM as I hiked up the logging road. The smell drifted away as quickly as I smelled it but it was distinct. I've never smelled anything like it since and I have been with hunters that took Adirondack bears and this odor was different. It actually raised the hairs on the back of my neck, it was definitely a strange odor. The tracks were sort of footlike but very wide. The toe area was mushed in the mud so it was difficult to determine if there were claws like a bear or any other type of distinguishing features. In retrospect, I should have reported this immediately but the only person I told was my wife and a few hunting buddies. No one completely dismissed my story but it was like, oh, thats something but I know what I smelled and sensed and it definitely gave me the creeps.

I am interested in your organization and I'd be willing to go back to the area with someone involved with BFRO and take you to the site. Please contact me at T********@nycap.rr.com to discuss. Thank You.

ALSO NOTICED: tracks. smell, very strange and definitely distinct

OTHER WITNESSES: no

OTHER STORIES: Not until I read about in the local paper

TIME AND CONDITIONS: Approx. 8AM
cool, 40 degrees, overcast, very still.

ENVIRONMENT: past a pond/swampy area heading uphill

Follow-up investigation report by BFRO Investigator Paul Conroy :

I spoke with this witness by phone.

The tracks were not distinct enough for him to be certain about them. The general area has a long history of reports.

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Editors' note (MM):

There is a well known book about sightings in this part of upstate New York titled "Monsters of the Northwoods," written by Whitehall local Paul Bartholomew. Copies of this book were hard to find for many years, but are available again through Amazon.com (click here).