Franklin-Oxford County Lines, Maine

Black Cat Mountain Rd / South Arm Rd
Lower Richardson Lake near South Arm Mountain Range
Near Appalachian Trail; Nearest City: Andover, Maine

May 1992; early afternoon, I was the only person in the group of three to catch a glimpse of it. It may have been a bear, but the thing that gets me is the size it was as it moved.

I've never seen a bear move on it's hind legs. We left vehicle near Appalachian Trail and road crossing.

This area is wooded, old rockslide area with mountains elevation 3600 ft. Very steep climbing areas. Then we proceeded further up road on foot, decided to turn into woods to start hike.

Plans were to hike straight in until encountering a trail and then to proceed on that trail to the mountaintop. Upon reaching a surveying trail heard movement coming from higher ground about 70-80 yards away.

Thinking that we had encountered a black bear looking for food, another hiker fired two shots into the air with his 22-caliber pistol in hopes of scaring it away.

When the gun went of I just happened to be the only one looking towards the higher ground, what I saw lasted only a second.

Brown almost black, large, hard to determine size. Moved rapidly producing a large shadow.

I only was able to catch this rapid movement between two trees, then whatever it was took off.

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REMOTE_USER: from: Darin Monday, December 25, 2000 at 00:58:06