YEAR: 2005

SEASON: Fall

MONTH: September

STATE: Florida

COUNTY: Levy County

LOCATION DETAILS: Take SR 19 to 336 then 336 to 337 off of 337 in the woods. Or take 41 to 40 then 40 to 336 and 336 to 337. About 90 from st. pete and 12 miles from crystal river.

NEAREST TOWN: Dunnellon/ Inglis

NEAREST ROAD: 336/ 337

OBSERVED: About three years ago me and a buddy of mine went scouting in the Goathee State forest off of highway 336/337 like we do almost every other day. Seeing that his house line was aganist the forest. That morning we decided to go further back than usuall, to try and find new deer trails or run up on a family of hogs. We were about three miles back and we started smelling something that I can only explain as being a dead carcuss mixed with a skunk. We have always been interested in Bigfoot, so I knew that it stinks but didnt think it was in central florida. Although there has been sightings in the ocala national forest.

We keeped walking and came up on an old logging or ranger trail, it was covered with overgrown grass and had branches all over it. The road had palmettos lining it with a creek or runoff ditch on one side. We started walking down the trail towards our house. We were still about 2 3/4 mile from 337 when we came up on a bend in the trail. We walked around slowly to try and see deer or maybe some hogs on the trail, knowing that there are a couple herds in the area. There was nothing so we keeped walking. I told my friend to stop walking because I thought I saw something standing about 150yds down. I pointed at what I saw and we couldnt figure it out. He told me it was probably a tree, seeing that the had spray painted the trees to get them cut down. We keep walking and then it moved quite quickly toward the side of the trail, by then I was really nervous. We watched it from about 100yds away. It stayed on the left side of the trail neeling in some palmettos just staring at us. After about 10 minutes we were able to slowly get down in the creek out of the road but makeing sure it was still visible. After about 15 minutes of us staring at it, not believing that we actually are seeing a bigfoot it got up and walked back across the trail being followed by a smaller less intimidating one. The smaller one was not as dark as the bigger and had more of a redish color to it. they went out of sight when they crossed the creek into a densely cover underbrush.

We found two footprints but no other signs of them. The bigger one was a dark brown with a hint of red in the sunlight. With lighter chest. Not really any hair on his face. We mesure the hight of them by what they walked by and the larger one was around 7 1/2-9 foot tall and the smaller was around 6-7 foot tall. I took my shoe off and put my foot in the print, I wear a size 11 1/2 shoe and the print was larger than my foot.

ALSO NOTICED: Not as much animal activity about 15 minutes before the sighting. The smell just before the sighting and the whole walk home. Smelled of dead/ rotting carcuss and skunk mix.

OTHER WITNESSES: Me (Asa Dawson) and a Buddy (Jesse Males), he was hiking/ scouting with me the whole time.

OTHER STORIES: there was one posted in rainbow lakes estates.

TIME AND CONDITIONS: Early morning probably around 10:30am. The weather conditions: a warm day with alot of cloud cover but not rain clouds.

ENVIRONMENT: Pine forest with thick palmetto underbrush. Some swamps (cypress grove/swamp) Old logging area so openings were trees were cut.

Follow-up investigation report by BFRO Investigator Caroline Curtis:

I spoke to Asa and Jesse who stated they knew what they were seeing. They have grown up in rural Florida, know the wildlife and heard stories of and believe in the existence of bigfoots a/k/a skunk-apes. They were in the Goethe State Forest. This Forest is next to the 24,000 plus-acre Gulf Hammock Wildlife Management Area, a cooperative public wildlife and recreational area between Plum Creek Timber Company and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.

This class A sighting occurred very close to the sighting in Report #14457.

About BFRO Investigator Caroline Curtis:

• Worked as an Assistant to a Circuit Court Judge in Florida for thirteen years
• An avid outdoorswoman, growing up in the UP of Michigan on a family-owned fishing and hunting resort
• Certified Visual Tracker, Level 1
• Attended and assisted with numerous public and private BFRO expeditions
• She and the Florida BFRO organized South Florida Expedition 2008, North Florida Expedition 2008 and Central Florida Expedition in 2009.
  
• She and the Michigan BFRO organized the Lower-Michigan Expedition in 2011, Michigan UP Expeditions in 2012, 2013, 2015, 2016, 2018 and Wisconsin 2018
• BFRO Secretary for almost 20 years