new bigfoot sighting reported.

From McDowell news.

For a long time, this column has featured some weird stories about Bigfoot sightings in the western North Carolina mountains. It seems that folks in Burke, Buncombe, Caldwell, Rutherford, Ashe and Macon counties have some strange tales to tell about a mysterious monster in their mountains. Many of these tales can be found on the Web site for the Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization (BFRO). The BFRO's Web site is a place where folks can post their sightings anonymously and be taken seriously by qualified investigators. The good people with the BFRO will look into the matter and follow up on your sighting, no matter how unusual it may be. The Web site now lists 50 reports from North Carolina. Recently, someone submitted a report about a possible Bigfoot in McDowell County. Apparently, the weird incident happened in Little Switzerland near the Blue Ridge Parkway during the fall of last year. The man who submitted the report states he has a keen interest in the subject and has read hundreds of reports on the BFRO Web site. He is a member of another Bigfoot research group and has investigated an alleged sighting in another state.
Last fall, he was invited to visit an elderly friend who lives in Little Switzerland. "I arrived after dark on a Tuesday and discovered that my friend's summer home is located at the top of a mountain," he writes on the BRFO site. "Her 'development' consists of about 60 homes tucked away in the woods on steep slopes accessed via a series of narrow gravel and macadam roads." His first thought was that this development was built in a likely Sasquatch habitat. "Indeed, as we sat watching TV after dinner, I began to have the creepy sensation of being watched, although my friend told me that neither of her neighbors was in residence that night," the man wrote. "After the news, about 11:30, I told my friend I was stepping outside from some night air, when in fact my intention was to have a look around and listen to the woods." The man wasn't outside for more than five minutes before he was startled by what sounded like wood knocks coming from the woods. He reportedly heard a single thump that came from the woods, followed by another "answering" thump five to 10 seconds later, coming from a different direction. The sounds were repeated every couple of minutes for perhaps 15 minutes and it sounded as if the second knock changed positions slightly. He estimated that they were a couple of hundred yards away from where he stood. The man noticed a nearby woodpile. He picked up a log and added a third knock to the mix by hitting a nearby tree. The first knock was heard again quickly, almost as an answer to the man's knocking against the tree. After few more times, the knocks stopped and the man went inside for the night.
The next day, the man went out running for some exercise. As he ran through an undeveloped area, he again had the feeling of being watched. While he was out, he found two, human-like footprints in the soft dirt of a nearby hillside. The next night, he again heard the knocking sounds coming from the same general direction. But this time, he also heard "a plaintive, eerie howling" coming from behind the house. "It sounded every 30 seconds of so for perhaps 20 minutes, he wrote in his report. "I told myself it could be a dog tied outdoors. I decided not to interact that night. I just had a feeling that it was not the thing to do." That night, the man was awakened from his sleep by the sound of a heavy thumping on the roof. As he sat up in bed, he heard another couple of thumps that sounded as if they came from the area over the closet."Soon I was fast asleep again, only to be scared awake by what was clearly pounding on the walls of my room that was so loud, my first thought was, 'Someone is breaking into my room!,'" he wrote in his report.
He sat up in bed and turned on the overhead light in his room. He felt like this sound had to be caused by a Bigfoot because of the loudness and the height of the outside walls. The sounds soon died down and the man had the feeling that the creature was leaving for the night. He heard nothing more.
"Next morning over breakfast, my hostess asked me if I had been awakened by that that 'awful pounding' on the roof," reads his report on the BFRO site. "We traded our stories. My friend told me that nothing of the sort had happened before in the 25 years she and her husband had lived in the house." The elderly woman was concerned about the noise and asked what it could have been. The man said he didn't quite know but would confer with some neighbors." Before leaving my friend to continue on my trip towards eastern NC, I inspected the area around her house for footprints," reads his report. "I found none, but I discovered that a tall tree grew up through the back deck through a hole that had been cut for it. The tree would provide easy access to the deck and roof, while the low roof in front would make the roof accessible from that position.".

Contact Mike Conley at 652-3313, ext. 3422 or e-mail nconley@mcdowellnews.com.

http://www2.mcdowellnews.com/content/2009/jul/22/mike-conleys-tales-weird-man-describes-possible-bi/