Popular Post Skinwalker13 Posted April 30, 2020 Popular Post Share Posted April 30, 2020 I'm 2 weeks late getting this posted but ive been swimming in busy work and follow ups. Below is the report as it was sent in to us at the West Virginia High Strangeness Collective. The gentlemen who has this encounter is a friend of mine from one of my other hobbies, field herpetology, and up until this point had joked on occasion about bigfoot. His words are in "--" and the investigation notes follow. I'll attach pictures of the findings velow as well, this was by far one of the most exciting days of my life. "I share this event completely aware of the backlash, and ridicule I will receive. The day of April 12, 2020 had weather conditions shaping up to be perfect for my favorite hobby, amateur herpetology. So like every spring night when the rain is falling heavy I decided it would be a great night to cruise the roads and document the species of reptiles and amphibians crawling on the floor of a local state forest, and like normal an unnamed passenger (at this time) opted to cruise the backroads with me on the search. We arrived at the state forest a little after 8pm, the sun not yet fallen, and the skies not quite dark enough for the animals I was searching for to be emerging from their hiding places yet. So, we took a drive through the park to kill time, look for other interesting animals and wait for the sun to fully set. Nothing unusual was happening. The frogs were starting to call as the sun fell behind the mountain and night began to fall. The birds chirping fell quiet with the sunset. The deer were retreating from the wet valley I was intending to search that night. Absolutely nothing unusual for the area I frequent on a regular basis. In an average week I visit this same location 5-6 times to document any new egg masses, the species I observe, or anything else I may find interesting at the given time. I have observed and heard coyotes and owls in this valley on several occasions, and have become familiar with their behavior and noises as a result. This average night was about to take a terrifying turn I never imagined. In this particular forest I have a handful of areas that host great habitats for documenting a wide variety of species. I made my way to the first vernal pool area I wanted to check in the flooded valley wetland that night. I exited my vehicle, the time now approaching 9pm, and I observed a toad on the gravel parking area. I decided to document the first species of the night. I stopped, got my phone out of my pocket and snapped the first picture of the adventure. That would end up being the only explainable thing I encountered in that valley that night… as I took two to three more steps, just passed the giant rocks that prevent vehicles from driving into the open area of the woods, towards the first vernal pool I was intending to shine with my flashlight, I heard a groan that I have never heard in these woods before. This groan was deep, almost sounding human or at least primate in nature, clearly agitated, and extremely too close to where I was currently standing. I had clearly interrupted something, and it was furious about it. Something was in this valley with me, and I had no identification for the sounds it was expressing towards my presence. The chills that shot down my spin and covered my body was like nothing I have experienced in my life. I looked back to see the unnamed person with me void of color with eyes as large as I have ever seen on anyone. My first reaction was get back in the vehicle and try to make sense of what we clearly both just witnessed. What was a short distance back to the vehicle felt like an eternity carrying the fear that had consumed my body at this point. Merely thinking about that groan is enough to spark those same chills through my body. As we sat in the vehicle for what in reality was likely only a few seconds, but felt like minutes, asking each other what that noise was, a second, now closer, groan rang through that valley and the fear struck every molecule of my body again. This thing, whatever it was, was literally on top of us. My only mission at this point was to get the hell out of that valley, and my unnamed passenger expressed the same mission aloud. People often ask why there was no video, or picture, or recording of some kind in the age of everyone having a phone in their pocket, but after experiencing that sound, in near complete darkness minus my own lights, I can definitely understand why people just bolt. I lost all the preconceived ideas we all have that we would be the one with the guts to stick around to find out what just made that sound. I drove over an hour to search a completely different forest and wetland area for species that night because I no longer wanted to be in that area and sleep was sure to elude me for days after this unexplainable experience. After returning home that night and the following day I attempted to make sense of the sounds we witnessed. I messaged friends avid in the outdoors to jokingly tell them I heard a murder or a bigfoot last night, hoping for identification suggestions from anyone close to me that could give me an answer more reasonable than either of those ideas. Nothing. I researched large cats that are not supposed to be here, and those that are, nothing resembling that groan in felines I listened to. I researched coyote and wolf chatter, again nothing in the Canine world. I researched owls, raptors, bears, and once more nothing matched that bone chilling sound. I honestly hoped and waited for the news to report a body, seriously, I was just seeking answers at this point. I was admittedly becoming desperate for answers. Someone has heard this noise in these woods before. I couldn’t possibly be the only one. So I desperately contacted a friend of mine (he will be making his own posts about this event) highly interested and invested in the fields of cryptozoology, and the paranormal. Admittedly I made this contact in hopes to get an answer something along the lines of “that’s not a sound I’m aware of” much to my surprise he wanted to know more. Where did this happen? When did this happen? Can you tell me what you recall? I gave him the details of what I recalled, the above event, with the location in more detail, and the investigation was on. The details of his investigation are heavily documented in photograph and video. What he found matches almost too unbelievably perfect to the experience I described to him. I don’t want to go into detail of his side of documenting this event since he will do that better than I can. However, the evidence I received after he visited the site of my experience literally made my heart drop, I could feel the color once again leave my face. I’m still not sure what we heard in that valley that night, but what he uncovered leaves me completely unsettled about where the evidence appears to point. The only thing I’m sure of is whatever it was didn’t want to share that valley with us and it still gives me chills when I think about it. You can be the judge of the evidence for yourself. I won’t tell you what to believe, because I’m still unsure what to make of this myself." - Jon Tinney Field notes : Weather conditions have been in perfect to preserve physical evidence between now and the the sighting. Once I arrived on site, I located the vernal pool and immediatly noticed 2 footprints that were very deep in the substrate on the edge of the pool. As I navigated the game trail that lead around the pool I noticed a sapling broken at chest height, and twisted with a second break 18 inches above the first. Moving along the game trail I located a smaller game trail that made its way toward the area where i saw the initial prints. On this trail i found another foot print in the mixed soil and leaf litter. I marked that print with a glove and continued to the original set of prints that i noticed off the bat. As I nelt by the first two prints I heard a series of tree knocks from above me higher up the mountian. The series was in this pattern ***----** i find this inconsequential yet noteworthy. The first two prints were full of water, I documentdd them with pictures and video and moved toward the secondary track. While I was moving debris from the print to verify that it was castable I noticed an accompanying print that was the other foot completing a left and right set. I prepared the area as per Dr. Jeff Meldrum instructions in his Sasquatch field guide and poured the plaster casts using creek water and plaster of Paris. While i waited for these to dry i discovered additional 2 prints but didnt have enough plaster to cast these, they were also very shallow and would not have yeilded much of a cast sample. I documented them in photographs. There is about 7 miniutes of video footage that accompanies the investigation. The casts are now cleaned and pictures will be included, midtarsle breaks are present in both casts, the heels and midtarsle break are the most impressive features to these casts as the ground is very hard and the toes were not clear but were disernable . I tried to leave impressions by jumping up and down but was unable to make impressions that were as deep as the footprints. No hair samples to be found. When I showed the results to the witness they could not believe that the evidence corroborated their encounter. The subject was actually much closer to him durring the encounter after I showed him pictures of the area and where I was finding the trace evidence. The footprints were pointed in such a way by a tree that it would have been watching him and was actually within 50-75ft most of the encounter. The recovered casts measured at 14 1/2 inches long. A follow up site walk through was preformed with Dr. Russ Jones, he reviewed the casts as well. The exact location of the site will not be exposed as it is an active investigation area. I'll post more pictures tomorrow as I've reached a post/response limit for today 😆 1 9 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gigantor Posted April 30, 2020 Admin Share Posted April 30, 2020 1 hour ago, Skinwalker13 said: I'll post more pictures tomorrow as I've reached a post/response limit for today 😆 I took care of that for you. Good job Skinwalker13! 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skinwalker13 Posted April 30, 2020 Author Share Posted April 30, 2020 Thanks you my friend! Here are pictures with evidence of what looks like a metatarsal break This is the sapling mentioned with 2 breaks, the one furthest away was twisted. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skinwalker13 Posted April 30, 2020 Author Share Posted April 30, 2020 Here are the images of the uncleaned casts The cast with the missing toes is due to a 1.5 diamater root that thebtoes were resting on. I'm going to shrink some of the other high res images down later and will upload them omce its finished. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ShadowBorn Posted April 30, 2020 Moderator Share Posted April 30, 2020 @Skinwalker13 Have they found more of it's right footprint? I am asking this since that right foot looks injured. Seems like a creature that can be tracked. Was there a measurement done on it's stride? It seems like you had a very close encounter and yes it was giving you a warning to get out there. Chances are it might have been hunting in that area and you happen to Scare it's game. Did you feel anything after you heard this groan ? Besides fear. I ask the questions since I just want to know more about. I want to have a better idea about my own encounters and their behaviors. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skinwalker13 Posted April 30, 2020 Author Share Posted April 30, 2020 12 minutes ago, ShadowBorn said: @Skinwalker13 Have they found more of it's right footprint? I am asking this since that right foot looks injured. Seems like a creature that can be tracked. Was there a measurement done on it's stride? It seems like you had a very close encounter and yes it was giving you a warning to get out there. Chances are it might have been hunting in that area and you happen to Scare it's game. Did you feel anything after you heard this groan ? Besides fear. I ask the questions since I just want to know more about. I want to have a better idea about my own encounters and their behaviors. In the comments under the pictures I mentioned the toes of the right foot were resting on a 1.5inch diamiter root, which is the reason for the sharp angle in the cast. Other partial impressions of the right foot were found on site, and there were no signs of any anatomical deformity. Unfortunately i was in able to cast those tracks as they were very shallow and i didnt anticipate finding that many tracks so I only had a single small bag of plaster. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ShadowBorn Posted April 30, 2020 Moderator Share Posted April 30, 2020 @Skinwalker13 Other than that, they are some great finds. To bad that you could not have been able to get good detail on those prints , like dermal ridges. Just stay safe. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlackRockBigfoot Posted April 30, 2020 Share Posted April 30, 2020 (edited) @Skinwalker13 Extremely well written and informative post! Those casts are very well done. Thank you for sharing this with us. Does this particular area have a history of sightings? Eagerly awaiting more pictures and updates! Edited April 30, 2020 by BlackRockBigfoot Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NatFoot Posted April 30, 2020 Share Posted April 30, 2020 Awesome. What area of WV was this encounter. No need to share details. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skinwalker13 Posted April 30, 2020 Author Share Posted April 30, 2020 1 hour ago, BlackRockBigfoot said: @Skinwalker13 Does this particular area have a history of sightingS? It does!! And it was actually about 10 liner miles from where I had my sighting in 2001. to set back and think that maybe, just maybe, that I my have cast one of the Sasquatch that I saw.... Its borderline emotional lol. 3 minutes ago, NatFoot said: Awesome. What area of WV was this encounter. No need to share details. In Kanawha County, near Boone County 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BC witness Posted April 30, 2020 Share Posted April 30, 2020 Thank you, Skinwalker13, excellent report and follow up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skinwalker13 Posted April 30, 2020 Author Share Posted April 30, 2020 Thank you BC!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlackRockBigfoot Posted April 30, 2020 Share Posted April 30, 2020 6 minutes ago, Skinwalker13 said: It does!! And it was actually about 10 liner miles from where I had my sighting in 2001. to set back and think that maybe, just maybe, that I my have cast one of the Sasquatch that I saw.... Its borderline emotional lol. In Kanawha County, near Boone County I bet that it is emotional! What did you use for casting? I am looking for something new due to the wet conditions around here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NatFoot Posted April 30, 2020 Share Posted April 30, 2020 15 minutes ago, Skinwalker13 said: It does!! And it was actually about 10 liner miles from where I had my sighting in 2001. to set back and think that maybe, just maybe, that I my have cast one of the Sasquatch that I saw.... Its borderline emotional lol. In Kanawha County, near Boone County Thanks! My family is all in Kanawha. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skinwalker13 Posted April 30, 2020 Author Share Posted April 30, 2020 (edited) 43 minutes ago, BlackRockBigfoot said: What did you use for casting? I am looking for something new due to the wet conditions around here. I really like to use hydro-cal when i have it but im a Indy toy maker so I had used my stash on casting some statues and only had plaster of paris. I just had to wait longer for the cast to set than normal. Shoot Cliff Barakman an email, I heard him talking about mixing salt, I think it was, into plaster to aid in drying in wet conditions. The two deepest impressions I was unable to cast becuase they were partially filled with water, so i understand the circumstances your fighting 100%. **** i just found a recipie for it from a naturalist friend of mine. 1tsp of salt flr every 4 cups of plaster. It'll accelerate overall set up time. But helps things set up in wet conditions, but not waterlogged conditions. Edited April 30, 2020 by Skinwalker13 Found info 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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