YEAR: 1997

SEASON: Spring

MONTH: March

DATE: 29th

STATE: Virginia

COUNTY: Giles County

LOCATION DETAILS: On Old Hollow Road near Pearisburg, Virginia in Giles County

OBSERVED: I was hiking with my girlfriend in the evening on the night of March 29, 1997 We were in a pretty isolated area so we were surprised when we heard what sounded like a muffled scream that sounded like gibberish sort of like Chewbacca on Star Wars.

It didn't scare us but we were curious as to what the sound was and where it was coming from. We began to call out Hello to see if it was a person who would answer us. There was no response, so we kept walking in the general direction of the sound.

All of a sudden we heard crashing like a large animal running through the underbrush, and we saw a large figure in the general shape of a human except more hunched over and hairier than a human. It ran by us about 10 feet away and ran off down the side of the mountain.

We were too shocked to follow it and we were too scared because it was getting dark and we didn't want to stray too far from the trail. We had no camera with us. We haven't told any forest rangers or any type of authority because we were afraid they wouldn't believe us.

ALSO NOTICED: We had seen three deer running across the trail away from the direction in which w were walking about 5-10 minutes before the incident.

OTHER WITNESSES: We had been hiking for at least 30 minutes since our last water break. We had been on the Appalachian trail for the last week and had decided to go off on the smaller trail at about 10:00 that morning. We were just hiking and talking at a normal level enjoying the beauty of the outdoors.

TIME AND CONDITIONS: It was March 29, 1997, early spring, about seven o'clock in the evening. It was in the low sixties but quickly cooling off. We had not encountered any bad weather in the past couple days-the skies were clear. Since it was about seven, it was still about a half-hour before sunset.

ENVIRONMENT: We were on a trail, on a switchback that sort of cut across the side of the mountain. There was a small creek that ran by at the very base of the mountain, which was the direction towards which the creature ran. There was heavy undergrowth, reaching about mid-calf, and it was a fairly dense forest, in terms of the number and closeness of trees.