Submitted by: Clinton
If anyone told me that they saw bigfoot or a werewolf, I would have laughed. I won’t laugh anymore. Every hair on my body is standing on end just remembering the night I’m about to tell you about. It’s been almost ten years, but I remember it like it was yesterday.
My in-laws were living in Kentucky at the time. I live in Michigan with my family. My father in-law had suffered from COPD for years and was nearing the end. On Friday nights I would pick my wife up from work and we would head straight to Kentucky for the weekend. I wanted her to be able to spend as much time with her father as she could. It was a great comfort and help to her mom to have her there. I worked security on the night shift for years, so I was fine staying awake for the drive. This gave my wife and daughter the chance to sleep on the way.
It was probably sometime around 1:00 am. I was driving through the Red River Gorge on Mountain Parkway. It was a nice short cut that saved about an hour and half off my drive time. I cannot express to you enough how wide awake I was. I had slept during the day in preparation for the drive. Even if I hadn’t, 1:00 am really isn’t that late. My girls were asleep, and it was peaceful. My teenager wasn’t aggravating me about hooking her music up to the car stereo, and my wife wasn’t asking me questions. I had my coffee and the road to myself. It was nice.
I was driving through a stretch that had a few curves then a few straight aways. Nothing hazardous. As I was coming out of a curve, my headlights hit the guardrail coming up ahead of me. I thought I saw movement, so I slowed down expecting to see a deer bolt out in front of me. I don’t know what it was, but it definitely wasn’t a deer. I saw a huge black mass stepping over the guard rail. My first thought was that it was a bear. Then I got close enough to see that it wasn’t a bear either. It was huge and bipedal. It stood there like a human. I prayed it was a person. It wasn’t. It was full of black hair from head to toe. It turned its head to look at me. I will never forget those glowing green eyes staring at me. I don’t know how I didn’t die from a heart attack at that moment. I hit the accelerator so hard I think it was touching the floorboard. I have never been so afraid in my life. It stood there by the guard rail and watched me pass by. I was afraid to look in rearview, but I had to know if was chasing me. It walked across the highway and over the guardrail on the opposite side toward the river. I didn’t stop.
I kept driving. I was speeding. I couldn’t get out of those mountains fast enough. I didn’t care if I had a flat tire. I would have kept driving until the rim exploded. My wife woke up during my get away. She asked what was wrong, and I couldn’t even answer her. I don’t know if I was in shock, but I was absolutely in fight or flight survival mode. My poor wife had no idea what had happened. She woke up to see me clutching the steering wheel so tight I had no color in my hands. I was driving way too fast. She said I was pouring sweat and white as a sheet. She was afraid that I was having a heart attack or a stroke because I wouldn’t answer her. She became frantic and that woke my daughter up. I didn’t mean to scare them, but I wasn’t stopping or explaining anything until we were safe.
I’m not exactly sure how far I drove or how long it took before I calmed down. When I told my wife I think I saw a werewolf, or no, maybe it was a bigfoot, she laughed. It was probably 8 to 10 feet tall. It was hairy like a bigfoot, but its body reminded of a werewolf. It was those glowing eyes that scared me the most. She assumed that I was dozing off or saw a bear. We spent the rest of the trip with me trying to convince her what I saw, and her trying to find an explanation for it.
When we got to her parents, we were still debating it. Her aunt had told us that there are stories about all kinds of weird creatures and strange happenings in the mountains. My wife turned to the internet, and low and behold…I wasn’t the only one. She apologized to me. She felt bad for not believing me, but it was such an unbelievable story. I completely understand, I wouldn’t have believed it either. We did agree that we would not travel that way again. We altered our route to go completely around the mountain. It took quite a bit longer, but it was worth it. When continued to go as much as possible until her father passed. We went at least once a month to visit her mother afterwards. When her mother decided to move here to Michigan to be closer, I didn’t hesitate to volunteer. I had her packed, loaded, moved and unpacked in less than a week. It’s beautiful country and I still own property in the area. My wife and I have recently decided to sell our property and buy something on the other side of those mountains. I don’t know what I saw that night. I have heard stories of people calling it a wendigo, a bigfoot, a wolfman, or even the hillbilly monster. I guarantee I will do everything in my power not to see it again.
