YEAR: 1991

SEASON: Winter

MONTH: February

DATE: first week

STATE: Pennsylvania

COUNTY: Berks County

LOCATION DETAILS: Top of Blue Mountain, the Appalachian trail, State Game Land 110. Marshall's path. (Pennsylvania Atlas and Gazetteer Plate 66, extreme SW corner.)

NEAREST ROAD: 22-78

OBSERVED: Sighting was seen in 1991 in Blue Mountain Berks County PA. State Game Land 110 I believe in early February. I was grouse hunting on the top of the mountain, there was ten to twelve inches of snow with a half to one inch of ice on top of the snow. It was very difficult to puncture your feet to walk through the snow and ice. I shot my grouse, on top of the mountain about a half to 3/4 of a mile from where we came up to the top of the mountain. I shot twice after my friend with me yelled grouse, I yelled I got it to my friend who then proceeded to walk up to me. He was 75yds away and it took him about 15-20min to get up to me. Then he walked a trail that went back to where the road starts at the top of the mountain. I stood there for 15 min. as I heard my friend walking away from me,afer I could hear his footsteps no more, I turned the other direction and was looking at the side of the mountain that we came up. I noticed a dark figure running along the ridge of the top of the mountain, for 50 to 100yds. it ran, there was an opening and it stoped. Then it proceeded to run straight for me uphill and did not stop until it was about 40 to 50ft away from me. It was not out of breath and did not make a sound and just stood there and looked at me for about 1-2min. and then walked away in the direction that it came from. First of all in those conditions you could not run or barely walk in it. It was hard to puncture the ice on top of the snow to walk let alone run. It went through it like it wasn't even there for 200yds and when it stopped 50ft away, you couldn't even see it breath or hear it breathe. He ran that distance, in about 1-3min maybe. It scared the hell out of me i wasn't sure what it was, until it stopped right in front of me. It found me I wasn't looking for it. And I can tell that when he stopped in the opening on the ridge that he can see blaze orange because he ran faster then straight for me after he seen me in my blaze orange one piece outfit. He was there in no time at all, running uphill a 100 to 150yds. He walked away and looked back at me once and then kept going. He was all black, very long hair, it was hard to see his face through the hair. Tall around 7-7 1/2ft 400-500lbs I thought. Very powerful animal seemed very intelligent because I think he heard the gunshots or the yelling and wanted to find who was making the noise on the mountain and came right to me. I was scared at first and when it stopped, I put my shotgun right on it at 45-50ft and it didn't even flinch it wasn't scared and it just walked away. My friend with me is 6'1 200lbs and when I told him what happened, he didn't believe me but he tried to run on the road at the top of the mountain on level ground, flat, he took 3 steps and fell on his face.

OTHER WITNESSES: I had no witness, my friend with wanted to leave and not go back to see the tracks.

TIME AND CONDITIONS: close to noon,lighting conditions were overcast

ENVIRONMENT: Top of the mountain, wooded area.

Follow-up investigation report by BFRO Investigator Jim Osborne:

When I spoke with the witness he stated that it looked like the creature in the Patterson film. He added that as it was walking away it turned to look at him by turning its upper torso, not just the head. Witness emphasized that the creatures actions in the snow was an unbelievable display of power to move so swiftly and effortlessly on difficult terrain. He also stated that once the creature spotted him and moved toward him, he felt that he was about to die. (He only had very light shot in the gun, and there was no way he could run away in the snow at the speed the creature was approaching.) However, once the creature stopped and displayed no aggression, then he no longer felt threatened.
When asked to better describe the face he said that there was so much hair, and the eyes were so deepset, it was like looking at a mask - impossible to determine whether the features under the hair were more human or ape-like.

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