Here is a submitted 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." -**********When Joy walked out of her Mountain City, N.C. home and saw the giant, dirty handprint on the back of her vehicle, the first thing she felt was anger.She’d just spent the prior evening washing and polishing the blue Jeep to a sparkling shine.As she got closer to the vehicle though, her anger quickly turned to confusion, fascination and fright.About 10 inches in length, the handprint seemed to dwarf the taillight of her car.She knew that something had put the handprint there overnight because the vehicle had been spotless just hours before.She had left her bedroom windows open that night and recalled hearing her dog barking wildly, but just assumed her Collie had spotted a cat, opossum, or some other unwelcome critter.But now, she had an eerie feeling. “The first thing I thought was that it had to be a bear,” she said. “But it doesn’t look like any bear print my husband and I have ever seen.”The print didn’t reveal any claw prints or marks, just a palm, fingers and thumb.Another odd detail was that the print was left behind in what appeared to be creek sand, not dirt or mud.Did someone try to pull a prank?Joy's family has a quarter-mile long driveway, which leads to their large, wooded farm, and lives about a mile from a main road. “If someone was trying to make a joke, then they sure went to a lot of trouble,” she said.When she showed family members the mysterious print, they gawked and told her it was “Sasquatch.”“They were serious,” she said.“Sasquatch” is an alleged ape-like creature, inhabiting densely forested areas. Most U.S. reports come from the Pacific Northwest, though there are websites dedicated to Bigfoot sightings in Virginia and North Carolina, particularly in the Blue Ridge Mountains and along the Appalachian Trail.Bigfoot is usually described as a large, hairy, ape-like creature on two legs. By all accounts, many people believe in its existence and contend that the same or similar creatures are found around the world under different regional names.The scientific community considers Bigfoot to be a combination of folklore, misidentification (usually a bear), and hoaxes, rather than an actual creature.Joy admits she isn’t sure what left that strange, giant handprint on her car. The family hasn’t seen or heard anything strange since the incident, “but I’m keeping my windows shut from now on,” she said. “Just in case.” -**********Tom was a man with a mission. He found his life's calling unlocked for almost 20 years ago in the woods near Old Fort. That's when he encountered Bigfoot.Many people over the years have seen what they believed to be sightings or physical evidence of Bigfoot. But Tom is different in one respect. The creature he saw came back. And, as it turned out, there was more than one. Indeed, he now believes, there's a whole colony of them.Where, exactly? He's a bit guarded about exact locations, but said he sees the creatures "way up Curtis Creek, near the Parkway."What brings them back, again and again, to the woods Burnette haunts?He has several guesses. For one, he believes a large community of them have lived in the area for a long time. And because their home territory coincides with the woods he haunts, they have become familiar with him.In other words, he has made peace with them. Although he says he has not come face to face with the reclusive creatures, he has found what he believed to be gifts left for him; mushrooms, meat, and other items harvested from the woods."They know I'm not out to hurt them, that I'll protect them," he said. "They're used to me now." That familiarity has led to several opportunities to observe them, at a distance, for more than just a few seconds, he said.So how is it that more people haven't seen them? Simply, he answered, because people tend to think of Bigfoot as a dumb beast, no smarter than a bear. In fact, the Bigfoot culture is well developed and they are highly intelligent creatures."They're more aware of you than you are of them," he said. "These are very alert creatures."After years of observation, Tom believes the Bigfoot domesticates the wild animals of the forest the same way humans domesticated dogs, and for the same reasons."They use bear to hunt," he explained. "They hunt in groups."Earlier this spring, Tom got what he believes is confirmation of this theory, when he came very close to a hunting party accidentally."I felt sure something was watching me," he said of one day's excursion into the woods. "I turned around and felt eyes on me." He didn't see anything out of the ordinary, he explained, but long years of romping the woods has taught him the limitations of the human eye in the dense foliage.He raised his cell phone and took pictures of the woods in front of him. It was only after he had detail shots printed at maximum enlargement that he saw the evidence he had in hand.One eerie picture shows what appears distinctly to be a humanoid face, with flat, wide mouth and heavy brows. The face's left are the shapes of what could be faces of bears or other beasts.Tom was chilled to think he had come so close to a hunting party, but said that, by this time, if the Bigfoot had wanted to hurt him they could have done so. The fact he has remained unharmed is evidence, he said, that the Bigfoot mainly hunts small game.This latest close encounter is not the first. Several years ago, he continued, he found what he believed to be an infant Bigfoot left on his property. Why would a mother Bigfoot abandon her baby?Tom suspects that the baby may have been in danger from a male. He said in the primate kingdom, a male will sometimes kill an infant in order to get the female to go into heat. Holding the infant, he made what he now regards as a great mistake."I took it back into the woods," he said, "and left it, hoping she would come back for it." Sadly this did not happen. Days later, he found the skull of the young creature; whether it had been eaten by dogs or killed by an adult Bigfoot, he didn't dare speculate.He explained that he realized this was the evidence the world had been waiting for. He photographed the skull, then sent it to Texas laboratory for DNA analysis. Today, he is upset about the lab's progress, and speculated he might have to go to court to get the thing back into his possession.Meanwhile though, two pictures he shot of the skull are featured in the book he published a while back about his observations. Entitled "Natures Secret Agents," the book is a dialy account of his experiences and observations over the years. Many sightings are detailed, along with the occasional exchange of gifts and, sometimes, terrifying harassment by less friendly members of the Bigfoot community.Tom has learned to keep his distance. He tries to get the best photographs he can, but does not ever wish to put them on the defensive. The size, strength and cunning of the creatures means no human would stand a chance. He feels safe so long as he maintains a healthy respect for the Bigfoots' privacy and space.He said that several years ago an Indian chief told him the Bigfoot is the guardian of the forest and all the animals in it. After several years observation, he is inclined to agree."They don't want anything to do with us," he said, because they know the violent ways of Man. "I want to share what I have learned so that we can understand them, not fear them, and respect them and their home." -