I saw something on Monday night that still has me totally shaken to my very core. I have always loved nature… I love the woods, I love hiking and camping, fishing, I’m really into mycology so I’m out looking for mushrooms and various types of fungus whenever I get a chance. The weather was absolutely beautiful on Monday for this time of year, so towards evening time, I decided to round up some of my walleye gear and head down to an old train trestle crossing the Mahoning river in Niles, Ohio. I had parked my car about a mile and a half from the trestle so I could walk the tracks and hit a few other spots along the river on my way down there. By the time I reached the trestle, it was pretty much dark. I was wearing a headlamp at the time so I had a depending light source. At this location, there is a lake directly across the river, which the two are connected by a small overhead dam. I was there for 15 min when all of the sudden, this overwhelming feeling of dread came over me. I switched my headlamp on to turn around to start back up the river bank, and right behind a big sycamore tree, I saw what looked to be a VERY LARGE ANIMAL, kind of kneeling beside/behind it. As I locked my eyes on it, I completely froze. I knew I was definitely seeing something there, but my mind couldn’t process it. What I was looking at didn’t make any fucking sense. The thing that I kept saying to myself was, “Animals aren’t supposed to look like that.” Right as I’m thinking this, it’s as if this thing read my mind, STOOD UP, and made itself perfectly visible in the most pretentious way. It almost had this vibe like, “Yeah, now you see me, you know I’m real, I definitely exist… What are you gonna do about it?” And as soon as it happened, it kind of hunched over and made its way into the brush. I was out of there LIKE A FLASH. As soon as my feet hit the tracks, I ran and ran the entire way back to my car, without stopping. By the time I reached my car, I couldn’t breathe. Both my legs were locked up. I was vomiting and somewhere in between the encounter and running away, I had pissed myself. It’s early Friday morning now, and I think I’ve only slept for about 6 or 7 hours altogether. I’ve been constantly searching YouTube and all kinds of stuff, listening to eyewitness accounts, and it sounds like these things are encountered quite often. I’ve heard of the “Dogman” before but never really took it seriously. Before the night of this encounter, I would always picture a dogman to look like some little skittish, coyote looking creature. Man… I love the woods and I love nature. The woods for me was always a safe haven I could venture into, to escape stress. Stress at work, bills, relationship problems… I could always take a nice long hike, go fishing or foraging and come home feeling 75% better. Now, I feel like I was threatened and kicked out if my second home. The only thing I can keep thinking is, these things aren’t supposed to exist. I feel like a terrified little kid who just came face to face with the dreaded “monster in the closet”. You know, the monster you parents told you, no wait, ASSURED YOU, wasn’t real and couldn’t hurt you. People need to be made aware of these things. They are as REAL as it gets and they are dangerous. Thinking back to what this thing looked like and how it was built, these things are perfectly adapted killing machines. The way the arms and legs looked, it looked like it was perfectly adapted to walk on all fours as well as on two legs, it was sooo quiet and fluent with its movements also. It’s not like in the movies where the monster comes charging out of the woods, growling and snarling, these things are are masters of camouflage and they utilize the darkness perfectly. I didn’t notice a smell from it, probably because the wind was on my back at the time, but it sure smelled me. Its nose was up in the air the whole time of our encounter, just sniffing away. This experience has torn a huge hole in me. Every time I eat, I get nauseous, I can’t sleep for more than 20 min. at a time, and every time I close my eyes, that thing is all I can see. I’m trying not to dwell in the fear, I’m trying to accept what I saw and what had happened, but it’s hard. I’m really glad I found this group and found a few things on YouTube, so I know I’m not alone.

Anonymous

Time: 6 PM

Date: 12/26/16