YEAR: 2025

SEASON: Fall

MONTH: October

DATE: 4

STATE: Pennsylvania

COUNTY: Centre County

LOCATION DETAILS: 41.013269, -77.588923
this would be a close proximity we were near the 169 mile marker on I-80 westbound

NEAREST TOWN: Bellefonte Milesburg

NEAREST ROAD: I-80 near mile marker 169

OBSERVED: We were traveling westbound on I-80 in PA, near mile marker 169, following another car which was about 150 yards ahead of me. I was matching traffic speed at 77mph. There are 4 lanes of paved roadway, 2 for driving and one each for pulling over, 1 right 1left. Looking ahead at the car in front I noticed something in the center of the right hand pull off lane, It began moving to the left, towards the car in front of me. I immediately thought "What the hell is he doing?! He's going to get hit!" I thought it was a person at first, because it was moving in an upright position and on 2 legs.

It crossed in front of the car (how far in front I don't know) but I could still see some portion of the head above the car in front. It was a Subaru.. I thought for sure there was going to be an impact but it continued passed the car towards the guardrail. At that point I had a more clear visual on it. It was completely dark, all the same color. From head to toe there wasn't anything that stood out as different in appearance. It had a more slender/slim build, and I want to say I think long arms that were not held upwards as it moved. It was the way it moved across the road that shook me. Nothing quick or jerkey like a sprinter. It was fast, but almost a glide or sliding motion to it. The whole incident might have lasted 2-3 seconds. It disappeared over the rail completely effortlessy. It never stopped to climb over. It thought there was a cut roadway there the kind where troopers like to sit. but there is none.

OTHER WITNESSES: My wife was in the truck with me, but was taking in the scenery out of her passenger door window,she did not witness but heard me yell out "What the Hell was that" by the time she looked forward It had crossed the road

OTHER STORIES: After seeing what I saw, we checked the internet and there are other reports in the same area, Bald Eagle Park, Penn State, Milesburg.

I just want to add I know what I saw, But don't know WHAT I saw. I'm a avid hunter with +50 years in the woods. This was not a bear

TIME AND CONDITIONS: 5:30pm sunny clear skies low 70's

ENVIRONMENT: There were visible farms, in a valley, on the right side of the road, just prior to a wooded area upcoming ahead. Then there is a stretch of woods on both sides of the road, with the left side leading to a mountain. There is a guardrail on the left side of the road with fallen trees on that side

Follow-up investigation report by BFRO Investigator Benjamin C.:

I spoke with the witness in detail about his sighting. The witness is a retired civil engineer and Air Force veteran. Over the course of our conversations, I found him to be sincere and very credible. Due to privacy concerns, the witness requests not to be named in the report. He will be referred to in this report as B.G.

The area of the sighting took place on RTE 80 West approximately 11.5 miles (18.51 kilometers) northeast of the town of Bellefonte. The area north of RTE 80 is characterized by open farmland sloping upwards away from the highway, rising to a heavily forested ridgeline that abuts Bald Eagle State Park and the massive Sproul State Forest to the north. South of RTE 80 there is a low forested ridgeline named Sand Ridge about 11.2 miles (18 kilometers) long that runs from the southwest to the north east, south of which lie additional plots of farmland before rising to meet the high forested ridgelines of Nittany Mountain.





















The sighting location is 16.21 miles (26.08 kilometers) northeast of two other reports from Centre County (see BFRO Report 78276 and 78345) in vicinity of Gamelands 333 and Fisherman’s Paradise. Latitude/Longitude of this sighting is 41.013269, -77.588923

At the time of the sighting, B.G. and his wife were returning from a trip to eastern PA, traveling west on RTE 80 to their home in western Pennsylvania. The witness said that he and his wife travel RTE 80 frequently and had no reason to expect anything out of the ordinary. B.G. was driving a Dodge Ram truck and is a very defensive driver and at the time was in the right lane and maintaining a distance of approximately 165 yards (151 meters) from the vehicle in front of him, make and model being a Subaru Cross Trek. (The distance was confirmed as 165 yards as the witness returned to the sighting location with his range finder to confirm whether his initial assessment of 150 yards was accurate or not). His wife was in the passenger seat looking out the window to the farmland to the north.

The witness said that at the time of his sighting, he was driving approximately 77 mph (124 kmph) in the right lane. At this spot on RTE 80, the highway is flat and straight and allows a clear line of sight straight ahead. There is a strip of forest to the right side of the road and a forested median on the left between RTE 80 West and RTE 80 East.

The sighting occurred at approximately 5:30 PM in the afternoon and weather conditions that day were clear. According to weather data for the nearby town of Bellefonte, the temperature was warmer than usual for early October at 77 degrees Fahrenheit. Humidity was 39%. Dew point was 50 degrees Fahrenheit. Barometric pressure was 28.85 in. Wind speeds were from the south at 5mph with no precipitation recorded. The moon phase was waxing gibbous.

Up ahead of him and off to the right side of the road, the witness said he saw something dark. The witness did not know how long the object was there, nor did the witness know how far away he was from the object when he first saw it. Initially, B.G. thought that it was some sort of vehicle, motorbike, or dark inanimate object on the shoulder of the road. As he continued to approach, he saw the object start to move from right to left crossing in front of the Subaru.

IMAGE: Mile Marker 169

Maintaining his distance of approximately 165 yards behind the Subaru, the witness said that he could see what looked like the head and shoulders of a man-shaped figure over the top of the Subaru as it crossed in front of the vehicle.

The witness states that he was “shocked” when he saw the figure cross in front of the Subaru and that it was not hit. He half expected to “see the figure get hit and come rolling over the top of the Subaru.” As the now clearly animate object cleared the Subaru and was in the middle of the road, the witness could see that it was a dark figure, upright and human-like in appearance.

The witness described the movement of the figure as “moving quickly and smoothly.” The witness estimates that the time it took to cross the road from the moment it started moving from the right shoulder to the left shoulder of the highway was approximately three seconds. B.G. estimates that the figure crossed the left side of the road in three or four strides, he does not know how many it took to cross the right side of the road as it was obscured by the Subaru. The witness emphasized how amazed he was at the speed of the figure as it crossed the road. The witness recalled yelling out to his wife “What the hell was that?!” as the figure disappeared into the forested median to the left.

B.G. stated how the figure crossed over the guardrail on the left side of the road without even stopping and lost sight of the figure when it stepped into the forested median. As he drove past the spot where the figure entered the wooded strip, he looked at the entry point but could not see the figure.

The witness told me that he is a bear hunter, knows what bears look like and how they move, and said that no bear could have crossed over a guardrail that effortlessly or cross the road that swiftly, especially on two legs. The figure didn’t pause its stride at all and went right over the guardrail as if it offered no obstacle. B.G. does not know if the figure stepped over the guardrail or hurdled it as the event happened so fast.

The witness stated how he continued following the Subaru in front of him to the next exit, as he wanted to talk to the driver and see if the occupants of that vehicle had seen the same thing that he just saw. The witness did not recall if the Subaru hit it brakes at any point during the sighting or not, as he was too fixated on the upright figure crossing the road.

The Subaru got off at the next exit (Exit 161) and the witness followed. Coming to a red light, the witness got out of his vehicle to approach the Subaru, only to have the light turn green and the Subaru drive away. Unable to contact the Subaru driver, the witness and his wife turned around and resumed their journey home.

When asked to describe the figure, the witness stated that it was tall and uniformly dark, but he could not say if it was black or a dark brown given the distance from, and speed of, the figure. He didn’t see any indication of clothing on the figure. He also said that the figure was thin and slender, that it did not match the stereotypical profile of a large and muscular bigfoot.

Approximately 14% of all Class A reports from the BFRO describe the build of the sasquatch as possessing a slim or lean body type. B.G. did acknowledge that he only saw the figure from the side and not straight on, so he cannot speak to how wide the figure was.

The witness said that the entire frame was taller and slenderer than he would have imagined for a bigfoot. He described it as “Long, tall, and slim”. Trying to compare the figure to a human body, the witness said how the legs and arms were longer with the arms extended downwards below the waistline as it crossed. B.G. said how the frame did not make sense to him, as the limb lengths were not proportional to a normal person.

When asked if he saw hands or feet, the witness only remembered seeing the movement of its extremities. The witness does not remember seeing any details in terms of musculature or hair length. He is also unsure at how far in front of the Subaru the figure was, only that he could see that the head and what he assumed were shoulders were higher than the roof of the Subaru in front of him.

The witness also commented on the arm movement of the figure as it crossed the road. The arms of the figure were not pumping up and down like a runner but were angled downwards at no more than a 45-degree angle as it crossed, seemingly swinging as it crossed.

The witness stated that he could not see any facial features and did not observe any facial detail. B.G. is confident it was a side profile, but due to the distance could not see anything projecting from the face that would give the appearance of a nose, muzzle, jaw, or any other clearly defined facial feature.

When asked about a neck, the witness said that he did not see a neck. He stated how If there were a neck, he should see a narrowing in the frame from jaw to shoulders and does not believe he saw a neck. He said it was “almost like the head was sitting on top of the shoulders.” Whether this was due to hair length or body mass of the creature is unknown.

The witness did not observe any sexually dimorphic characteristics on the figure, nor were any odors smelled, or sounds heard during the encounter.

The witness tried to explain away the figure as a person but said that he has the Waze app on his truck, and there were no disabled vehicle reports for either side of the road, nor were any disabled vehicles seen on that stretch of highway. Equally, the witness could not explain why there would be an individual in uniformly dark clothing crossing a highway in front of vehicles going 80 miles an hour. He is also adamant that he knows what he saw as it was in broad daylight, and his eyes were not playing tricks on him.

After the interview, the witness volunteered to return to the location of the sighting, drove the 110 miles back to the sighting location and took pictures and video of the crossing site as well as used his range finder to determine the average distance between himself and the Subaru as well as identify the GPS coordinates.

One of the things that bothered the witness enough that it prompted him to take that return trip was to find explanations as to why the creature crossed at that specific location. After parking on the side of the highway at the crossing site, B.G. stated that he noticed that the land to the right, or northern side, of RTE 80 west was relatively flat. As he progressed farther west down the road while driving, he observed that the side of the roadway became much steeper, “like a gully or ravine.” When he turned around and headed east bound on RTE 80, he noted that the land was flat but extremely dense in foliage, with maybe 20-yard visibility maximum.

To the witness, and this investigator concurs with his assessment, this location, while not optimal as far as all crossing sites go, does allow for the most covered and concealed route and minimal time exposed crossing an open area for several miles in either direction. The witness also confirmed the location crossing site as he remembered seeing multiple fallen trees in the point the creature entered the median. When he returned to the area, he found those same trees and confirmed the location in his head.

B.G. told me that he is still “rattled” by the event and is still trying to come to terms with what he saw. He said that he had roamed the woods for 50 years hunting and this was his first encounter. Before this incident, the witness said, “he was not a believer” and thought that it was a hoax. But now his mind has changed.

It is my assessment that, based upon the information provided, that the witness did see a bigfoot cross the highway in front of him that October afternoon.

Regarding the height of the figure seen, a rough estimate of height ranges can be calculated based upon the known height of the Subaru Cross Trek (63 in/160 cm), the known height of the driver’s eye inside his Dodge Ram (witness measured and self-reported a height of 63 in/160cm), the estimated distance between the Dodge Ram and the Subaru (as reported by the witness who returned to the area with a range finder determined the distance to be 165 yards/150.87m) and an estimated range of distances of the figure in front of the Subaru being between 5m and 100m.

Inputting this data into ChatGPT and asking it to compute the height of the figure using the measurements provided above and with the caveat that the head and top of its shoulders could be seen over the top of the Subaru, the resulting calculations provide a plausible range of heights from a minimum of 6’2”/ 1.88m at 5m in front of the Subaru to a height of 7’ 3”/2.20m at a distance of 100m from the Subaru.

The location of this sighting sits in the Northern Limestone/Dolomite Valley eco-region that makes up a substantial portion of the Ridge and Valley region of the Appalachians. The forests here are primarily oak-hickory forest, which include red and white oak mixed with tuliptree, red maple, and hickories among others. White pine, beech, birch, sugar maple, and Canadian hemlock can also be found as well but in lesser numbers as they are more common at higher altitudes and latitudes. Animals in the region include white tail deer, black bear, coyote, red fox, and a plethora of smaller animals. Two fish hatcheries are also located within and adjacent to the game lands, Benner Spring State Fish Hatchery and Bellefonte State Fish Hatchery, as are food plots planted for local game species. Just a few miles to the north of the game lands lie Bald Eagle State Park, State Game Lands 92, State Game Lands 103, and Black Moshannon State Park, and beyond that the vast Sproul, Susquahannock, and Elk State Forests

About BFRO Investigator Benjamin C.:

B. has attended multiple BFRO expeditions: North Georgia 2018 Fall, North Georgia 2019 Spring, Tennessee 2020 Fall, South Carolina 2021 Spring, and Pennsylvania 2021 Fall, Pennsylvania 2022 Fall, New Jersey 2022 Spring and Fall, Tennessee 2023 Fall, West Virginia 2024 Spring, Tennessee 2025 Spring

He has also conducted private expeditions in New Jersey, Alaska, Arizona, North Carolina, and southern Georgia. His area of responsibility as a BFRO investigator is central New York.

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