YEAR: 1977,78

SEASON: Spring

MONTH: March

DATE: 03/26

STATE: New York

COUNTY: Otsego County

LOCATION DETAILS: Just outside the town of Unadilla. If you follow hwy88 there are signs for Unadilla.

NEAREST TOWN: Unadilla

NEAREST ROAD: Nearest main road is hwy88

OBSERVED: The incident took place a long time ago. It was 1977,78. I was seven or eight years old. It was my birthday, March 26th. I loved being at my Grandmother's place in Unadilla, NY. I woke up early in order to see the deer and what-not foraging in the backyard. It was about 7am. I left through the front door of the house, which faced a road. There had been a fairly heavy snow the night before. I immediatley noticed something out of place. There were huge footprints that ran from a railroad track across the road about 50 meters from my Grandmother's front door and continued into her backyard. I ran along the edge of the road till I intersected the tracks, then started following them through the yard. I didn't think that anything was amiss. I obseved that the tracks were made by muddy feet since there was mud in the tracks and I noticed that they were huge (especially for a child!). I remember looking back throught the line of the tracks to see where it walked through the mud. After the tracks came down a small slope from the railroad track they crossed a small swamp that the ealry spring sun had turned into a quagmire. That must have been where the mud came from. I followed the footprints till they crossed all the way through the backrard and entered in the forest that joined it. As I stood at the verge of the forest I stopped and that was when I felt that everything was wrong. I instantly became very scared. In a second I realized that there was no sound coming from the trees. No sound coming from anywhere. No animals either. No birds, no bobcat, no deer, no horses in the adjacent pasture, nor any cows in the pasture next to that one. Nothing. I was all alone looking into woods that were still as dark as night. And I had the distinct feeling that something was watching me. That was when all hell broke loose. As I stood riveted in position something in the woods about 5 meters away started thrashing about. There were very deep grunting sounds and small trees and bushes being pushed this way and that. I never was able to see what it was because it was very dark and the trees and brush was way too thick. Moreover, I did not stay there too long. After about ten seconds of being scared stiff I found my legs and ran like mad into the house.

I did not tell this story to anyone for twenty years, and then only to the woman who is now my wife.

ALSO NOTICED: I went out later in the day (about noon) and took another look at the footprints. The sun was melting the snow, but they were still there. I measured the prints by seeing how many of my own footprints it would take to cover the distance lengthwise. Three. Plus, it took a little more than one jump from a stationary position to cover one stride.

OTHER WITNESSES: I was alone.

TIME AND CONDITIONS: Mornig around 7am. The sun was bright and the sky was clear. The mornig haze was still burning off. There was about 4in. of fresh snow on the ground.

ENVIRONMENT: Two pastures border the property with forested land connecting on one whole side. The land has a ridgeline along the side closest to Unadilla with a railroad track running along it's length. Across the road from the property is an area that is swampy for most of the year.

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