YEAR: 2008

SEASON: Spring

MONTH: June

DATE: 14

STATE: Kentucky

COUNTY: Rowan County

LOCATION DETAILS: [Daniel Boone National Forest; not far from Cave Run Lake]

NEAREST TOWN: Morehead

NEAREST ROAD: Hwy 519

OBSERVED: My name is Pam Lovins. I am a BFRO investigator in West Virginia. Earlier this summer I got a call from another BFRO investigator about a situation in eastern Kentucky, not too far away from my location. I was the closest person so I was asked to look into it -- ongoing activity near Cave Run Lake.

After multiple phone conversations with the reporting witnesses, I traveled to the site to see the location and meet the people.

I arrived in the afternoon and met several family members. They were a local family who frequently camped near the lake in the summer. They told me about various Class B incidents at night, and at least one Class A sighting in headlights at close range. That last incident occurred only a few days before I arrived.

I arrived in the afternoon and met several family members, most of whom had witnessed or heard something at some point during the previous few weeks. As dusk approached, two of the witnesses (two young men) hiked with me to a nearby hill where most of the activity seemed to emanate from. We had with us a Sony nite-shot infra-red camcorder and at set of gen-3 nightvision goggles.

These two witnesses, Chuck and Dusty, along with a few of their friends, had hiked up this same hill several weeks earlier. On that occasion Chuck was struck in the head by a rock. He was slightly injured from it -- had a minor cut in his scalp from the rock.

None of these guys had returned to go back up there until this day.

The three of us worked our way to the top of the ridge, stopping periodically to check multiple broken trees and branches. It wasn't long before something was thrown against a rock formation as we were passing by. We stopped and decided to split up briefly. Dusty went with me, carefully flanking one side of the rocky ridge. Chuck flanked the other side of the ridge. We eventually met up at the top of the ridge.

At the very top we were standing on a huge rock formation with a big cavity in the middle. The cavity was a natural formation -- creating a shallow fortress-like arrangement on top. This shallow fortress afforded a nearly 360 degree view, while providing numerous quiet routes of escape along adjoining rock formations on the ridge.

There were leaves and debris matted down inside the fortress, but there were no indications that humans used this particular spot anytime recently.

We were videotaping this rock formation in the dark with the Sony nite-shot and talking as it got darker. I decided to let the two young guys use my night vision goggles and camcorder to have a look around. At that point I only had a red headlamp with me.

While they were looking through the gen-3 and continuing to record video, I stepped up higher on the rock formation to look down over the other side. When I got up there and looked over the side, my red headlamp lit up a sasquatch standing 15-20 feet away. It standing motionless between two trees, just below the back of the rock formation. I could see it from the waist up, until I turned my headlamp briefly. Then it pulled back into the shadows and slowly walked away.

For as many years as I've been reading about bigfoots and wondering what an encounter would be like, I would not have predicted my reaction when I finally saw one for the first time that night. I was completely surprised and shocked. It was no more than 15-20 feet from me, looking up at me from just below the rock formation.

I think no matter how well you prepare yourself, you will be completely surprised and shocked when it finally happens.

I was pretty addled at that moment. I started walking backwards away from the edge and nearly fell off the rock formation. I turned off my headlamp and just stood there for a few seconds.

At that point Chuck calmly said "Eyeballs". I stepped over toward him and asked him where and he said, "Over your right shoulder."

At that point I knew there were two animals up there because the eyeshine [glowing eyes] that he was videotaping were in the opposite direction of the one I illuminated only seconds before.

I said out loud that there were two up there, but I didn't tell these young men that I saw one behind us, even closer than the eyeballs in front of us. I didn't want them to panic because that particular section of the rocky ridge is treacherous. It becomes more treacherous as the fog and dew moisture settle onto the rocks and make them very slippery.

Chuck [one of the witnesses] continued videotaping the eyes and reacting to what he was seeing through the camera.

One thing that I feel is particularly important to mention at this point. When I tried to see the eyes I could NOT see them with my own the naked eyes. But the eyes were not always visible to Chuck, so I may have looked at the wrong moment. A lot of my attention was in the other direction, where I saw one at closer range a moment before.

My mind was racing because I knew one of them was behind us. When I looked in front of us I didn't see the eyes he was talking about, so I was trying to deny it in my mind.

We stood there for a period of time, until I finally decided it was time for us to leave.

We began heading back down the spine of the ridge the same general direction we had come up. As we walked in the dark I could clearly hear something else walking, following us down the hill. Then I heard other foot falls paralleling us to our left.

The three of us were definitely spooked and felt threatened. Dusty had a large spotlight in his backpack and he pulled it out at this point. He lit up our way down the hill.

We didn't see or hear anything else as we returned to camp.

When we returned to camp we reviewed the video tape and I was happy to see that we recorded the eyeshine.

The facial appearance of the one I saw with my headlight, in no way resembled what I had always imagined. The eyes reflected the red headlamp. That looked eerie, but the rest of the face was surprisingly gentle looking -- gentle yet intelligent. It looked surprised but yet unafraid. The feeling I got was that it was curious but confused, confused as to what we were, and what we were doing up there after dark.

There was no pronounced point to its head. It was more of a soft dome shape like a human. The brow ridge was definitely heavier than a human. The nose was the most surprising feature of all; it just sort of hung there. No big flared nostrils or pronounced bridge, just sort of a bulbous lobe. The mouth was wide, the lips rather humanlike, without the prognathism seen in other primates.

ALSO NOTICED: The family's campsite was at the base of the hill we had climbed. It was only 200-300 yards from the spot where we got the footage earlier that evening.

At around 11pm the campground was once again being peppered with small rocks. This was one of the recurring things mentioned in the original story.

As this was going on we couldn't help but overhear some fellow campers. One group was several sites away and clearly under the influence. They were building a bigger and bigger fire, but then some of the guys at their fire began arguing. They were about to get in a big fight for accusing each other of throwing rocks. They had no idea where the rocks were coming from.

OTHER WITNESSES: 3. I was the only one with the face to face encounter, the other two observed eyes through the camcorder.

TIME AND CONDITIONS: 9:30-10:00pm, hot and humid, dew settling, 3/4 moon

Follow-up investigation report by BFRO Investigator Matthew Moneymaker:

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Here's the link to download and discuss this footage is:

http://s2.excoboard.com/exco/forum.php?forumid=160123
===================================

After seeing this footage I traveled to this location in Daniel Boone National Forest, to set out some "no glow" (Reconyx RC60 - totally invisible) trail cameras on the same hillside. I was there for a few days, and was on that hill every night ... every night there was severe summer thunderstorms.

Nothing notable happened for the few days that I was there.

I set up four separate cameras at trail choke points. The plan was to leave them there for about a month, or at least through one full moon cycle.

The cameras were retrieved 5 weeks later but only got a couple of feral dogs and some other animals. No humans walked by the cameras.

There was moonlight when this footage was obtained. You can actually see the moon in the footage. It's the object that looks like a single bright light high up in the trees. In some shots it appears above and to the left of the eyeshine. The moon appears smaller in this footage than what you would expect. That effect is caused by the optics of the camcorder.

The camcorder sweeps by the moon a few times in the footage. Chuck makes no mention of it as he pans around.

You can also hear vehicles driving by in the distance. There is a highway about 1/3 of a mile from this ridge. At one point in the footage you can see the headlights of a car moving along the highway. They appear well below and to the left of the eyeshine.

Many witnesses have described "glowing eyes" rather than just reflective eyeshine. In those cases the witnesses were confident that the eyes were glowing because the eyes were relatively bright, in situations where there was no bright illumination to reflect. The eyes were often amber in color.

In this case there was some illumination -- the infrared illuminator from the Sony nite-shot camcorder.

Pam's inability to see the eyeshine may have been due to obstructions from her viewing angle, or because she didn't look in the right direction at the right time. Or it might have been reflected infrared light from the nite-shot camcorder. Or the eyes may have been a very dim red (as has been describe many times by eyewitnesses) and thus were not bright enough, nor distinct enough for Pam to notice them when she looked in that general direction.

Through the eye of a Sony nite-shot, all sources of illumination will appear white, no matter what their true color. The nite-shot is also much more sensitive to light than human eyes. Thus even a small amount of dim red light will appear relatively bright and white in color through this type of camera.

In case you missed it above, the link to download and discuss this footage is:

http://s2.excoboard.com/exco/forum.php?forumid=160123

About BFRO Investigator Matthew Moneymaker:

Matthew Moneymaker is originally from the Los Feliz District of Los Angeles, California.

- Bachelor of Arts in English Literature from the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA).

- Juris Doctorate (Law degree) from University of Akron School of Law

- Founder of the Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization,1995.

- Writer and co-producer of the Discovery Channel documentary "Sasquatch: Legend Meets Science", 2001.

- Co-producer of the TV Series "Mysterious Encounters" for the Outdoor Life Network (OLN Channel), 2002.

- Producer of the "2003 International Bigfoot Symposium" (Willow Creek Symposium) DVD set, 2004.

- Co-host of "Finding Bigfoot" on Animal Planet Channel, 2010 - 2017.

- Current Director of the BFRO

- Available for private bigfoot expeditions and conferences. To inquire please email ContactUS@BFRO.net

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