YEAR: 1998

SEASON: Summer

MONTH: May

DATE: ?

STATE: Ohio

COUNTY: Gallia County

LOCATION DETAILS: in wayne national forest,southeast of oak hill in south east,ohio

NEAREST TOWN: hoadley

NEAREST ROAD: hoadley road

OBSERVED: My name is Mark. On Memorial Day weekend in 98 me and a friend went camping in Wayne National Forest. We arrived friday late night, and set up camp in an overhang.
The first night was uneventfull. The second evening we had a big steak meal on the open fire. After we ate and cleaned up dishes, just for fun and giggles, I howled like I heard on one of the web sites (the howl that sounds like an air raid warning) while my friend was making sounds like a monkey. We did this for about fifteen minutes. The time was now 7:15 pm. My friend then proceeded to chop up fire wood for the nights fire. I went and sat down in a chair and turned on the the portable radio about half volume. At 8:00pm my friend was done choping wood. He then sat down to relax. At 9:10pm I heard what sounded like a tree being snapped in half over the radio, so I turned down the radio and said to my friend "did you hear that?". My friend said no. So I turned off the radio for the night. At 9:15pm out to the left of the over hang in the woods there was this loud crash that shook the ground beneeth our feet. We looked at each other and grabbed our guns and loaded them, and got our flashlights and started combing the woods with the light. After about an hour of looking and listening we went back to relaxing. During the time we were looking in the woods all we heard was a whipoorwill moving about and an owl hooting. My friend then proceeded to drink beer, while I sat there gazing at the fire. I was wondering about the sounds that I heard earlier in the evening. The sound of the crash was like something picked up a 300 pound rock or a fallen tree trunk and slammed it to the ground, kind of like a warning to get out of the woods.
About 12:30 am my friend passed out on a cot. My friend started snoring heavily. I went and put more wood on the fire. After that I went and put my chair in the dark area of the overhang, and blocked the light from the lantern so it would not shine on me or get in my eyes. I would shine the flash light out in the woods about every fifteen minutes. At about 1:00 am,out to the right side of the overhang in the woods a tree started shaking violentley back and forth for about 20 minutes.while this is going on , I have the flashlight on pointed in the direction of the tree being shaken. I could not see anything - just hear the sounds of the tree. Then it stopped. I then ran over and woke my friend up and said there is something out in the woods and I am scared. Then my friend sat up looked around then passed back out. At that time my heart started to pound a little heavy. I grabbed my gun and put it on my lap as I sat back down in the chair. I then started hearing sounds of little twigs being crumbled and snapped. I grabbed the flashlight and panned left to right, As I got almost directly out in front of me about 60 feet out in the woods I came across a pair of eyes eight feet off of the ground. The eyes were the size of golf balls,further apart than humans. The color of the eyes were blue,and the pupils were fully open and i could see the whites of the circumference.then the eyes disappeard. I then ran over and woke my friend up again. I said there is something out there in the woods. My friend sat up looked around half dazed about 5 minutes and then passed out again. It was 1:45 am. I then shined the flashlight back in the woods looking for what ever owned them eyes, but to no avail. I now gave up on my friend for help. I then sat there and listened for more sounds. At 2:08 am I heard loud crashing foot steps coming from the right side of the woods down the hill in front of me. I grabbed my camera and pointed it towards the sound and snapped a picture. Then the stepping noise would stop for about 5 minutes at a time. Then it would start again and I would count about 5 steps and snap another picture in the direction of the sound and it would stop again. This went on for about 40 minutes. What ever started walking from the right of me was now to the left of me up on the hill. The sound of the foot steps was like a huge thing moving thru the woods. You could literally hear twigs and branches snap as each foot hit the ground. It was a horrible sound. I was realy scared now. It got deathly quiet. It was now 3:00 am. Then out to the left of the overhang where I heard the tree branch snap earlier in the evening, there came this voice of something trying to talk or comunicate by mimicking human language. It was saying 'mark roc roc, mark roc roc" over and over six times in a deep low voice. This went on for 5 minutes. I was terrified at this point. Then it got quiet again. At 3:30 am what ever was out to the left of me ,was now directly above me on top of the overhang. There came three deep grunts. kind of deep grunts you would hear an alligator make down in the swamps of the south. The grunts were low and deep. At that time, I turned the volume up to the highest setting on the stereo then turned it on for about a minute. Then I turned it off and listened . I did not hear any thing for another 20 minutes. Then all of the sudden there came this huge sneeze. It then coughed 2 times. The sound of the cough was deep lunged, like a horse or a rhinoceros. This was still on top of the overhang where this came from. The smoke from the fire was rising in the direction of the coughing. I think the thing was trying to get a wiff of us or something, instead it got a wiff of smoke. At this time I turned on the stereo and let it play for about 5 minutes. I wanted this thing to just go away. Then I turned off the radio and listend but I did not hear any thing. Then all of a sudden came this crash of lightning.kaboom then it started to rain real heavy. All I could hear was rain drops hitting the leaves on the forest floor. I then started pacing back and forth with my gun praying for the sun to rise. It rained for about 2 hours.nothing else happend untill the sun came up. My friend finally woke up at 8:30 am. My friend looked at me and said why are you walking back and forth for? and I said we had company last night. My friend said I thought you were joking with me. I said why would I wake you up twice in the night and say that i am scared and something was out in the woods for no reason. My friend said I don't know! I told my friend to watch my back as I ran out in the woods to look around. I did not see any thing untill i went up the trail to the left of camp. I found this tree that used to be 12 feet tall. At 8 foot high on the tree trunk was this snap break. The thickness of the tree was 4 inches in diameter. Then the tree was pulled down to within a foot of the ground. At that time my friend came to the tree and said what did that? I then said I told you we had company last night. Then my friend got close to the ground and said oohhh what is that smell?then I got close to the ground and said oohh what is that smell also. The smell was that like rotten vomit, very putrid it made you want to vomit from the smell. Then we saw these marks on the ground by the tree.they were 7 feet apart markings on the ground. like what ever was there had 7 foot gait to it's walk. I then followed the markings on the ground that led directly to the top of the overhang. At that point I found flies on the ground at the spot where I heard the grunts and cough. I got down and sniffed the spot that the flies were at and it was the same putrid smell as the one by the tree. I then found one spot going up the hill that was a footprint of the front of the toes.the toes were probably an inch wide each and in line together unlike a humans front toes that are angled. There was 5 toes in all. I took a picture of the print along with a picture of the trashed tree. At this point I am convinced that bigfoot had been the visitor during the night. Me and my friend went back to camp to eat breakfast and discuss what we have found. We decided that we would do a survey of the area. Way on top of the hill that is probably a quarter of a mile to the top we found that on top of the hill there is a gas line right of way. Probably 20 yards wide and miles long. The grass was thick and 3 to 4 feet high. We found an opening up there on the opposite side that was 8 feet high and 5 feet wide going into those woods. It looked like something big was moving in and out of those woods for some time. We went in a little ways but then we decided to go back to camp. It was too dark in there and it was the middle of the day. We sat around camp and gatherd up more wood for the nights fire. After our evening meal my friends girlfriend showed up with their dog. We told her nothing about what happend last night. The dog ran around about an hour then it was tired. The dog and my friends girl friend went to sleep in the tent at 9:00pm. I told my friend to put on some coffee that you got the watch. I need some sleep. I have been up for too long now. I laid down at 10:00pm. I was just about to sleep when out to the right side of the hill came this thing running at least 35 miles per hour. At that time I was up with a flashlight looking down hill for what ever was running thru the woods. It was like a train moving non stop until the sound disapeared to the left. My friend looked at me and said what was that? I told him that was what had visited last night. He was surprised at the sound. Then I got me some coffee this was going to be another long night. At 12:00am the thing came running from left to right. Same thing at 35 m.p.h..then at 1:00am it came running down from top of the hill to the bottom of the hill. Then that was it for the night. My friend went to sleep in the tent with his girl friend at 2:30am. I stayed up all night again fighting sleep. I was wondering why this thing would come running by camp. Then it dawned on me, it smelled the dog and probably was trying to lure the dog out to get an easy meal. I have hunted and camped a long time and never encountered any thing that has happend to me that has happened on this week end holiday.

ALSO NOTICED: Just the pure silence at late night and early morning. I will send another report of an actual sighting that occurred in september of 98.

OTHER WITNESSES: two witnesses.camping out.

OTHER STORIES: in the early 1800's.a man and his daughter were traveling in the woods on a horse and buggie heading home.at one point on thier journey,a bigfoot jumped on the girl's father wear it knocked him off the buggie.the two of them began to fight and wrestle each other.at that point the daughter hollerd at the bigfoot.but that did not work.so she got off the buggy,found a big rock and hit the bigfoot wear she guessed wear the ear would be.it then got up looked at her.then the bigfoot walked off into the woods.her dad had survived the ordeal.

TIME AND CONDITIONS: the incident's took place in the dark of night.in total darkness due to the canopy of trees.the weather was fair and warm.

ENVIRONMENT: hilly wooded terain.thich uderbrush in places.big old trees.thick top canopy blocking out moonligt and stars.

Follow-up investigation report by BFRO Investigator Jim Osborne:

This witness submitted the previously posted Class B report concerning odd animal kills (beaver carcasses stacked on each other) and footprints in the Woodbury Game Reserve. It should be noted that he and his friend had spent Saturday near camp doing various things and calling each other by name, which would explain how something/someone would know his name.

• Explanation of the report classification system
• Submit a report for the sightings database
• Please send any comments or inquiries to ContactUs@BFRO.net