Tonight my guest is Kevin. Kevin writes “I am from Tennessee born and raised we moved to a property that is still our family home when I was 13. It was on a mountain and located just outside a national state park not far from the Great Smokey Mountains. It was a small town of only about 1,000 people.
Not much to do so everyday after school, I would come home get a knife change clothes and go hike and explore the woods. When I was 17 I had went further back than ever before (about a mile and half) and discovered a old logging trail and some land that had been strip mined. I spent the day exploring until almost sunset. I knew there was sink holes and to be careful, and I had just walked up on the biggest one I had ever seen! Trees had fallen into it and it was about 100 by 200 feet wide and about 10 feet deep, as I was looking I noticed a figure bent over towards the edge on the fare end about 100 feet from me. It was hunched over and pulling bark from a tree and reaching into a hold to grab something, It took me a moment to process what I was seeing it was dark grey hair and had shoulder shape like a large man.
At first I thought it was a bear but the head shape from behind was more like elongated dome…..like a kitchen trash can lid but huge. I saw ears on the side as well not towards the top, I turned around slowly to leave and as i did it turned and looked at me, its face was scared and wrinkled with a dull gray skin tone. Had a very large mouth with large human like teeth. It’s nose was flat and plump, it’s eyes was a dark green/ black color, it squinted at me and then made a snarled look, it stood up and must have been about 8 feet tall, it’s head was almost to the top of the “pit”.
I took off running as soon as i saw it look at me I was terrified. As I ran I could hear it running behind me, i turned to look and it was pushing small trees down as it ran, I thought if i got to a thicket it would make it harder to chase me. I knew I was only about 300 feet from a barbwire fenced area my uncle had cows and a bull in if I could make it there I thought id be safe. As it went thru the thicket of bushes it was yelling, the yell sounded like a donkey mixed with a dog howl is the only way I know to describe it. This made me run for all I had. It was extremely fast and I think toying with me. As I got to the fence I stepped on the second strand of barb wire and launched myself into a tree beside it. When I looked it had stopped and was staring at me, a cow was about 10 feet away it went over and literally shoved the cow to the ground and then yelled again looking directly at me and then turned to go away.
I told my brother about it when I got back warning him to stay out of the woods and he just laughed, he was 12 at the time thinking I was just messing with him. I didn’t want to be made fun of so I kept it to myself all this time. Listening to your show made me realize I am not the only one and I know what I saw.”
Bryan H
Wow, one could only imagine at 17yrs old being chased by a predator toying with you, and you coming into your prime, being able to maneuver that fast not being able to escape it, how that must have felt, sorry for your experience