YEAR: 2012

SEASON: Summer

MONTH: July

STATE: West Virginia

COUNTY: Randolph County

LOCATION DETAILS: [Investigator (MM) Notes:
Depending upon the location, a witness can often provide pretty accurate GPS coordinates for where a figure was observed. However, it is not unusual for a hiker who is not familiar with an area to not know exactly where he/she was along a trail in a dense forest if that information was not noted down at the time with the help of a GPS device. The hiker will only be able to make a best guess. It is difficult to assess how far off the actual mark the hiker might be unless the hiker can return to the location to figure it out. These coordinates provided below are therefore a rough approximation based on the witness's best guess. They do not pinpoint the exact spot, but the exact spot would not be terribly far from this point.

39.043268, -79.652058

This incident happened somewhere along Big Spring Gap Trail.

NEAREST TOWN: Elkins

NEAREST ROAD: Route 33

OBSERVED: My wife was an attorney for the Federal Government at the time, so we thought it best to keep our encounter to ourselves until now.

At the time, we co-owned an 88 acre farm that bordered the Shavers Fork of the Cheat River. Across the river was the Monongahela National Forest.

We are both avid outdoorspeople and spent countless hours on trails all over the Northeast, but had never hiked Otter Creek in our own backyard. That said, I owned a trail map of the area back when it was managed by the Forest Service. Upon arrival at the trailhead we discovered the area had been declared a Wilderness Area and all of the tail signs had been removed. We confidently made our way into the woods and after 3 hours of hiking we came to a four way intersection of trails and become disorientated. We pressed on for another 2-3 hours beginning to get a little worried as I had drastically thinned out most of the survival contents of my backpack thinking it would be a short hike. All of the sudden, on our right side we saw a huge black shadow/silhouette on the ridge top roughly 100 yards up a steep hill. We then saw a tree begin to shake back and forth violently, then we heard what sounded like a monkey. I looked at my wife and I quietly said "is that a freaking monkey?" She was really scared and acknowledged by shaking her head yet. This lasted for about 30 seconds, and we decided to get out of there. We double fast walked out of there, keeping our eye on the ridge the entire time.

We finally made our way out of the woods in a place the locals call "Panther Hollow". We were exhausted and came upon a farm on our right. We saw an older woman gardening outside and asked her if we could approach to talk. We told her what happened and she replied that she doesn't go in those woods anymore because of all of the weird things that happen. She said her son had some encounters several years ago and won't go in the woods without a firearm. We asked her where we were and she advised that we were something like 17 miles from the trailhead where our car was. When she saw the look on our faces she generously offered to drive us back to the trailhead. Also, the name Panther Hollow itself is rich legends about a black panther who could be seen laying on the rocks there.

OTHER WITNESSES: No

OTHER STORIES: Yes. The areas from Elkins to Moorefield, WV and Elkins to Stauton, Virginia and Elkins to Snowshoe, WV are rich with credible stories of Bigfoot.

TIME AND CONDITIONS: 5:00 pm
Beautiful sunny, warm day

ENVIRONMENT: The section of trail we were on was in a narrow valley. There was fairly steep, wooded ridges on both side of us. A creek ran along side the trail to the left of us. Randolph County and the surrounding areas have some of the most beautiful, but rugged terrain in the state.

Follow-up investigation report by BFRO Investigator Matthew Moneymaker:

I spoke with witness Mark B. about this incident. He is credible and the conversation clarified certain things that the written report did not elaborate on.

Here is the key sequence of events:

As they hiked along Big Spring Gap Trail, which is near the bottom of the ravine in this section, the sunlight was casting a shadow from a ridge onto the ground near them. The ridge was approximately 100 yards above them. Mark first noticed the shadow of the figure moving among the shadows of the ridge trees cast on the ground in front of them. That is what prompted him to look up toward the ridge. When he looked up there he caught a quick glimpse of a very large figure passing among the trees. It was upright. He caught the silhouette of its arms, legs and torso.

Shortly after that quick glimpse the couple start hearing the sounds. In the report he described them as "monkey sounds". I wanted clarification on that. When I said he may need to listen to some recordings, in order to tell me if there are any matches, he said that he and his wife were watching a video with Les Stroud some years after the incident. Les Stroud was asked if he ever had an encounter with a bigfoot. Les talked about an incident in Alaska when he believes he heard a bigfoot nearby him. Les said it sounded very similar to a gorilla in Africa. He imitated the deep huffing sound during the interview. Les has heard bears and elk etc. many times. He knew this was different. Both Mark and his wife noted that Les's imitation of the sound was very much like what they heard in Otter Creek Wilderness that day.

The sounds went on for about 30 seconds, coming from the ridge. He and his wife could not see what was making the sounds.

When the sounds stopped a tree started shaking up on the ridge. I asked him to clarify what exactly he heard and saw. He could see the upper section of the tree moving. It was a thin tree possibly 20 feet high, possibly a birch tree. It wasn't just shaking a little bit. It was being bent over and thrashed against other nearby trees. It was violent thrashing of a 20 feet tall tree. The couple then understood that the primate sounds and tree thrashing were displays by something very large and very angry. It was protest, and it meant they should leave the area. They did exactly that.

The sounds and tree shaking have both been described in many other encounters, though usually not in the same encounter

Although we have not received reports previously from Otter Creek Wilderness, it is within Monongahela National Forest. There are other reports from within that National Forest so it would not be surprising if bigfoots reside temporarily or permanently in Otther Creek Wilderness.



























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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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