I recently received the following account:

I was camping in the Shenandoah Mountains in Rockingham County, VA last October 2017. It was nice fall weather, so I decided to go out for the weekend. When I arrived, a local ranger pointed out a hiking trail for me to follow. After a hike over the mountain, there was a nice area of flat ground near a stream that was perfect for camping. I hiked a few miles to get to the bottom of the trail. I set up camp, ate dinner and crawled into my tent.

Around 12:30 AM, I heard a noise outside of my tent that literally scared the hell out of me. I sat upright, and listened to the sounds. Soon after, I could hear rocks falling just outside of the tent. By the direction in which the rocks fell, I figured that someone was throwing the rocks downhill from the mountain...but that was over 100 yards away. I slowly crawled out of the tent and peered out into the darkness. The area was extremely dark, and I could barely see my own hands right in front of my face. Then suddenly, I heard heavy footsteps nearby, which were getting closer.

I scrambled back into the tent and reached into my pack in order to grab my .44 magnum. I pointed the gun at the ground in the opposite direction of the footsteps, and then let off a round. The footsteps stopped, but I did hear a faint rustling sound going away from me. I quickly reached into the tent and grabbed my sleeping bag. I found a nearby tree and propped himself against it. The magnum still in my hand. I dozed on and off, frightened at what had occurred.

It started to become light, but my nerves were still on edge. I didn't wait around long enough to take down the tent. I had at least a 2-hour hike ahead of me and I wanted to get out of there as soon as possible. I started my way up the trail. It was rocky and a slight incline in the beginning.

I was about an hour up the mountain when I began to hear the same strange noises I had heard the night before. I picked up my pace until I reached the peak. As I made my way to the top, I saw that there was another lower peak on my left, around 150 yards away. There stood a hairy, human-like figure looking directly at me. I knew that the creature was a Bigfoot. It was massive, at least 8-foot in height. I was so scared, I started to run. At the same time, the beast let out a terrible scream that echoed in the valley below. It didn't attempt to follow, but continued to scream.

To this day I can still hear that scream. It sounded like a low growl at first, then continued into a high pitched shrill, becoming a long, sustained howling. It most likely wanted me to leave its territory, according to what I have read. It was probably hunting at night and was upset that I had set up camp.

You are the first person I have shared my encounter with. I doubt I'll ever go into the wilderness at night again. WR

NOTE: There have been other documented incidents with Bigfoot in the Shenandoah National Park. The backcountry has a decent population of Black Bear, Coyote and Bobcat as well. This area is not too far from the George Washington National Forest, where some harrowing encounters have been reported. Lon