May 10

The outline was of a man but something was different

A listener writes “Let me first say this is uncomfortable and comforting to share. I had always, like hundreds of others, thought Bigfoot was in the Pacific Northwest.

Tennessee was just not the sort of place to find something like that. Unexplained sound in the woods. The wind, deer or bear. Unexplained sighting in the woods. A person, deer or bear.
An explanation had to be assigned to everything. If not then the sight or sound was an unknown. An unknown is not what we have in Tennessee. Hermits and hobos we have. Unknown we do not.

My first encounter happened while bow hunting with my friend.

I was hunting my normal spot at the normal time of day. The only thing different was the day of the week. Normally I would be at work waiting for the weekend. Not today.

My friend Nathan and I had played hookie. We wanted to get the most out of this bow season and hunting during the week would give us the upper hand.

The deer population during the late 80’s and early 90’s was not what it is today. Deer numbers on the rise but far from the record numbers of today.

Our spot was a “between” grounds hunting area. Deer would come through late in the evening just before sunset each day. On weekends the number of hunters increased and the deer would trickle in. Our thoughts were during the week they may just come through in herds.

I sat in my stand. Nothing! No movement. The time had long passed that we normally saw deer. I came out of the tree and went to the truck expecting to see Nathan. Nothing in sight. Nathan was still in the woods.

We had a long time tradition of playing pranks on one another.

I positioned myself in a brush pile along a u shaped bend in the trail Nathan should be coming out of the woods soon. I sat silent for about ten minutes. Then I heard him coming up the trail. He was moving very slow up the trail. I started getting an uneasy feeling. Could he be stalking a deer? If he was I didn’t want to scare the deer. I also didn’t want to end up with an arrow in me.

Up the trail he came. Slow and steady toward me and the bend in the trail. When he reached the beginning of the bend I made a grunt sound like a deer. This stopped him in his tracks. I could not hold it in any longer and started laughing. He immediately turned around and took of through the brush to my right. Thinking Nathan was pulling a prank on me I started out of the bushes to the location he had stepped off trail. I could hear him crashing through the brush and bushes. It was at that time something to my left caught my eye. About thirty yards down the trail I could see something moving up the trail.

It was Nathan.

“What in the hell were you thinking walking around my area?” said Nathan. I explained that I never got close to him. I explained how I waited in the brush and someone or something had came up the trail. I made a grunt sound and it took off. He explained how someone or something had came up the trail near the tree he was in. It had approached from his back side. He could hear it walk around him stopping every few feet. Thinking it was me moving around him he waited to see if I would spook anything up. Nothing jumped so he decided to come out of the tree and head to the truck.

I never got a clear look at whatever it was. From what I could tell it was five or six feet tall. The outline was of a man but something was just different. I can’t explain but it just did not seem human when it stopped. The brush it went through was very thick. If I wanted to make sure no one followed me that would be the route I would go. Of course the thorns would keep me from doing that. I never saw anything like that before or after in that area.”

2 Responses to “The outline was of a man but something was different”

  1. Michael L

    Is Tennessee one of those states that don’t allow other defensive weapons when bow hunting? Again, might as well just have a slingshot instead where large predators hunt…
    Michael1lion

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