YEAR: 1988

SEASON: Summer

MONTH: July

STATE: New York

COUNTY: Rensselaer County

LOCATION DETAILS: Poestenkill is what is known as a "hill town" of
Rensselaer County, and lies approx halfway between
Albany N.Y. and Williamstown Mass. at an elevation of about 1000 feet above sea level.

NEAREST TOWN: Poestenkill

NEAREST ROAD: Blue Factory Hill Road.

OBSERVED: My wife and I were driving on a blacktop secondary road at approx. 11:30 pm, while returning home from my stepson's home in Berlin, N.Y. This is a relatively rural area, with large expanses of forested land, just west of the Massachusetts and Vermont state lines. About 1 mile from our home we came around a bend in the road where another road, Davitts Lake Rd, intersects the road we were traveling, Blue Factory Hill Rd., and forms a "T". At this "T" there is a street light, and opposite Davitts Lake Rd, on the other side of Blue Factory Hill Rd. (the road we were on), is a 4-5 foot embankment sloping away from the shoulder of the road to a large field, also sloping downward from the road and ending at a line of trees approx. 100 yards from the road. There was (and still is) a barb wire fence which runs parallel to Blue
Factory Hill Rd. along this 4-5 foot embankment,
with the fence post set halfway down the embankment so that the top wire of the fence is about the same heigth or perhaps slightly higher than the shoulder of the road.

It is at this location at the abovementioned time, under the
illumination of the street light that I clearly saw a figure in mid stride hurdling over the barbwire fence, whose body was completely covered with red colored hair, not unlike the color of a red fox. The hair on my neck tingled, as while I
was certain of what I was seeing, my mind was
coming up blank as to any reference of what it actually was, and I felt a sudden rush of fear. I said to my wife " what the hell was that", and as our vehicle drew near the spot where I first spotted the figure, I could not draw myself to stop the vehicle, or even look in the direction of the field on my left where the figure was running.

Using the telephone pole from which the street light is mounted as a point of reference, I would estimate this figure to stand approx. 7-8 feet tall, and was totally human-like in respect to moving upright.

At this point I will turn the report over to my wife who watched this figure run down the field.

I did not see the figure leaping over the barbed wire fence - but I did see it running through the field. It was very large, covered in red hair as my husband described and running in an upright position swinging it's "arms" back and forth as it ran. I knew it wasn't a bear or deer - and as I watched it disappear into the wooded area, I had goosebumps on my neck and knew I had just seen something which was very unusual.

This event occured several years ago, actually
back in 1988. Naturally we have been reluctant to
share our encounter, as when doing so with even
our closest friends, we are met with comments such as basically we're nuts, seeing things, or it was surely a bear or deer. But we do not know either to be able to run upright like a human!

So--- having found this website we guess it's time to report this, as after viewing some TV programs about "bigfoot", the only illogical logical conclusion we can come to is that our
red haired figure was in fact a bigfoot, and since we saw this, they must exist, for we are both absolutely certain of the description of what we saw.

ALSO NOTICED: Several days later, in the evening while standing in our driveway seeing my stepson and his wife off after a visit from them, our German Shepard that was kept on a chain began growling, then barked a few times, then stopped, put her tail between her legs and slinked into her dog house.
We then noticed a distinct sulphur like odor, which we have since learned having reviewed some other reports of sightings, is sometimes reported.

OTHER WITNESSES: My wife and I were returning home from my stepson's home in Berlin N.Y.

TIME AND CONDITIONS: Time of day and lighting conditions covered in our report. The weather was clear,no rain, typical July night time temperature of approx. 65-70 degrees F.

ENVIRONMENT: The forest is mixed with red and white oak and maple the predominant tree species. At the top of Davitts Lake (which is a dead end road), there is as the name implies a lake of about 15-20 acres in size. This is the direction from which the
assumed bigfoot was coming from, and was running
towards some lower laying land where there is a flowing stream and wetland area.

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