"You put your left foot in,...you do the Hokey Pokey and the creature turns itself around!"

Squatch sighting near Stahlstown,PA, in Jan. of '05, triggers a series of recalled events covering 3 generations of family members re:days gone bye!

PART I

PREFACE:The primary witness in this sighting had,at first,insisted on anonymity because of his job/career position with a national corporation,as many people who may be in a similar position choose to do, when they first decide to go public to reveal an incident they experienced and can't explain.*( His request had a reverse attitudinal change following the investigation.) Mutual respect will keep me from divulging exact names and pinpoint references.

PART I of our story begins as a small group of 4 adult researchers arrived,as planned,mid-Saturday afternoon for our initial intro/meeting with the witness whom I'll refer to as PK. A very intelligent,down-to-earth, robust man in his late 30's. The weather was mild for a mid-February day and we managed to meet and stay out-of-doors for the duration of our stay. We congregated on the front-street of the home belonging to his relatives, in this small rural community,located atop the Chestnut Ridge,barely six miles from the PA Turnpike/I76. Prior to our one-on-one briefing,the 4 of us investigators (along w/ a young 8yr old son of one of the dad's in our group) took it upon ourselves to do a 'walk-about' ( with land owner's permission ) on some of the neighboring farms and woodlots to 'gain a fix', so to speak, on any outward signs of squatch activity in the snow - driven mountaintop territory. That hour-long excursion came up with few,if any,actual hints or clues.

After the basic introduction,name exchange and handshakes with the witness,he had no qualms about beginning his re-iteration of events that had occurred approximately 6 weeks earlier. We maintained our gathering around the driveway of his parents home ,earnestly listening as he began to walk and talk us through his explanation of the creature sighting. His episode took place right where we stood,thus it wasn't difficult to picture, in geographical actuality, 'what went down...where'. PK said his incident occurred shortly after his arrival at his folk's home,a day or so following the New Year's holiday. He parked his SUV in the driveway and his immediate family entered the house to greet their relatives who had arrived earlier for a belated holiday get-together. Soon afterward,he alone,returned outside and walked up the drive to his vehicle with the intention to retrieve some packages. He opened the rear tailgate,thus putting his back to the rural 2-lane road which ran parallel to the property. The time was somewhere between dusk and early evening. A lone electrical yardlight at the northern point of the house was the only predominant ambient light source in the immediate rural vicinity. A porchlight was lit on the front porch so...the ability to see clearly was somewhat at a margin. PK said,what caught his attention at first was some noise eminating from the rather thick 'stick grass' that bordered the roadside directly across the street from where he was parked. Being the last person to arrive that day,he had parked at the end of the driveway. He turned to look as to what was making the sounds and couldn't see immediately as to what it was. He thought at first,...if it was an animal it sounded large enough to be a deer caught in the brambled mess of tall ,dry,stick grass. When he turned and moved away from the car and a bit closer towards the road to observe the rucus, whatever it was slowed it's movement and almost seemed rather aware that it was being watched. The animal's movements lessened even more so and became more deliberate, almost with measured caution and then...finally ceased. No noise...no movement,...only the still of the evening could be heard. Curiosity got the best of him after a few moments and PK felt it best he return to the house. Upon entering he related to an adult male family member as to the outside oddity. Each grabbed a flashlight,and summoned a couple of the family dogs. The lot of them exited the house and headed to the roadside portion of the property.

There was immediate indication after shining their lights and looking into the thicket-that whatever had been there had moved on,...in what direction had yet to be determined. His relative turned right at the road and headed in that direction,northward...away from the streetlamp, with the two eager dogs,and his flashlight on. PK turned left stepping onto the road,his flash-spotlight on and headed slowly southward in the opposite direction, panning his light into the thicket and across the landscape all the while. PK was following the road with neighboring houses to his left,the stick grass and adjoining property on his right,as he proceded cautiously toward the neighbor's open-lot property at the south-point end of the block. He cautiously was angling himself closer towards the thicket with each new step. PK commented that he slowly approached the end of the patch of the stick grass thicket,which thinned-out somewhat just at the edge of his neighbor's driveway. This gravel drive was situated approximately 30 yards before the corner of the block.

He heard the dry grass crackling first and then saw, from about 30 yards away, what he could only describe as a very large,dark-brownish colored,hairy hominid,with no neck, hurriedly stand up on 2 legs and begin to leave the stickgrass's cover at a rather fast pace. He observed in awe as the creature walked out into the open field,crossing the driveway and headed in the direction of a neighbor's log-cabin home and small horse-farm located across the street from his folk's home atop a very steep hill. PK surmized the creature had to be at least 8 ft. tall,because when it stood up in the stick grass the top edge of the sticks reached the crease at the bottom of the creatures' buttox. PK stands slightly over 6ft tall, and he raised his arm to illustrate where the grass reached his body,... positioning his arm out flat near the top of his pectorals. He observed the creature's long flowing body hair as it moved it's large frame and defined the hominid's entire body as massive but svelt. PK emphasized how it's shoulders just met the head with no apparent neck. He said a lot was happening in his mind at this moment but pondered as the first thought of reality hit him ..."I thought all this talk about a bigfoot creature was now- non-existent, in this day and age,let alone seeing a creature as such...here in PA." He watched in disbelief as the creature continued it's ascent up the steep hill with ease,and when it reached the first of two rail fences that bordered the outer perimeter of the property,it stepped over the fence with ease and grace...never breaking it's gaite, and did so at the next rail fence that bordered the inner barnyard. Only after the creature crossed the two fence lines and was headed towards the front lawn of the cabin and barnyard did it finally turn the entire upper-half of it's body to look back around and sort of acknowledge PK for the first time,who remained trans-fixed,with his handheld spotlight,standing at the edge of the road, gazing back up at the spectacle. PK gawked, as this 'beast of a hairy being' observed PK for 2 or 3 more steps, then, almost as if it was satisfied that there was no persuit action in it's direction, it slowly turned away from PK and continued on its path across the neighboring property,almost non-chalant,and dissapeared over the horizon at the top of the ridge.

As quickly as this entire incident happened...it was over. Pk said he just stood at that spot along the road and starred for a while,taking it all in,not really knowing let alone believing what he just witnessed. When asked later,after he related his experience to us, as to whether there were any distinct sounds or odors, he stated that there were none that he could recall. He also could not discern what the creature's facial features were in detail,other than 2 eyes,a nose and mouth. He could not distinguish if it had a saggital crest,but didn't recall if there was eyeshine,reflective or otherwise. He didn't seem to think there was shine or he would've noticed that. The beast was too far away for great detail ,beside the fact the there was not adequate lighting for any better description.

PK has been an outdoorsman his entire life,hunting,fishing,camping,climbing,and hiking. Presently he teaches survival/wilderness skill courses,rock and mountain climbing,first aid and wilderness readiness/preparedness to others who seek his counsel through-out the US and abroad. He stated that he has never witnessed any similar creature or like animal, let alone an unexplained edgey occurance in all of his travels, such as he witnessed that winter's night in Jan. near his parents' rural home.

*FOOTNOTE RE: AT STORY END

PART II...

COMING SOON TO THIS BLOG SALOON BEFORE THE NEXT FULL MOON...and following a brief respite of snacks and refreshments from our back-packs...

...THE REST OF THE STORY!

PK's younger sister joins in, jogs the memory banks,and sets the record straight!